WeвЂ™ve detailed some of Conan DoyleвЂ™s other extraordinary achievements in this post all about Doyle and his writing. Doyle also took up legal causes himself: read Julian BarnesвЂ™s novel Arthur and George for his most famous real-life case. Doyle also wrote science fiction romances, such as The Lost World (1912), which would inspire Michael CrichtonвЂ™s Jurassic Park, and, subsequently, Steven SpielbergвЂ™s film (the sequel to the novel and film being named, in homage to Doyle, The Lost World). Winston Churchill agreed, and was a devoted fan of the historical novels. We owe the word вЂgrimpenвЂ™ to him (from Grimpen Mire, in The Hound of the Baskervilles).В He wrote historical novels (such as The White CompanyВ and Sir Nigel, set during the fourteenth century) which he prized more highly than his detective fiction. He was knighted for his journalistic work during the Second Boer War, not for his achievements in fiction, law, or medicine. Among other achievements, his legal campaigning led to the establishment of the Court of Criminal Appeal.

ThereвЂ™s more to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle than Sherlock Holmes. ItвЂ™s hardly surprising that the sleuthвЂ™s popularity inspired a raft of other writers to create rivals to Sherlock Holmes.ДЎ0. Sherlock Holmes is the most-filmed fictional character.В According to IMDb, Holmes has appeared in 226 films and been played by dozens of different actors since the advent of cinema in the late nineteenth century. Sidney Paget, who drew the illustrations, had Holmes wearing a deerstalker when the detective went into the country to investigate mysteries at country houses and in small rural villages, but most people think of the detective as always donning the hat when off to investigate a case.ДҐ. It is when the stories began to appear that Sherlock Holmes became a worldwide sensation. Much.В The famous image of Holmes wearing a deerstalker hat is a product of the celebrated images which accompanied the short stories, which appeared in the Strand magazine from 1891 (beginning with the wonderful story вЂA Scandal in BohemiaвЂ™). Sherlock Holmes didnвЂ™t wear a deerstalker. Wilde, who was also present, also agreed to write a novel for the magazine вЂ“ his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which appeared in 1890, the same year as The Sign of the Four, DoyleвЂ™s novel.Д¤. He convinced Doyle, at a dinner party in 1889, to write a second novel featuring the detective, for serialisation in the magazine. The second Sherlock Holmes novel was the result of a dinner party with Oscar Wilde.В One person who had admired the first novel was the editor Joseph Stoddart, who edited LippincottвЂ™s Monthly Magazine. It didnвЂ™t sell well, and more or less sank without trace.ДЈ. The novel was rejected by many publishers and eventually published in BeetonвЂ™s Christmas Annual (named after the husband of Mrs Beeton, of the book of cookery and household management). Doyle wrote the book while he was running a struggling doctorвЂ™s surgery down in Portsmouth.

Auguste Dupin, two of whose adventures we include in our pick of PoeвЂ™s best short stories. Famously, Doyle was inspired by a real-life lecturer of his at the University of Edinburgh, Dr Joseph Bell, who could diagnose patients simply by looking at them when they walked into his surgery the other important influence on the creation of Sherlock Holmes was Edgar Allan PoeвЂ™s fictional detective, C. The detective made his debut in the novel A Study in Scarlet (1887), written by a twenty-seven-year-old Doyle in just three weeks. The first Sherlock Holmes novel was something of a flop. For more on the creation of Holmes, see the detailed вЂIntroductionвЂ™ in The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes.Дў. Doyle was also a keen cricketer himself, and between 18 he played ten first-class matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club вЂ“ quite fitting, since Baker Street is situated in the Marylebone district of London. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who created Holmes (of course), was a fan of cricket and the name вЂSherlockвЂ™ appears to have stuck in his memory. TheВ name was altered to Sherlock, possibly because of a cricketer who bore the name. Sherlock Holmes was originally going to be called Sherrinford. For more great facts about popular fictional characters, check out our pick of the most interesting Harry Potter factsВ and our fascinating facts about Romeo and Juliet.ДЎ. If you like these facts, have a read of the sequel to this post which gathers together further little-known facts about the great sleuth. This post is the first part of a two-part bumper post featuring interesting facts about Sherlock Holmes.

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