Arthur & Sherlock

In Arthur & Sherlock, American author Michael Sims explores the origins of the iconic detective, from Bell’s ability to read people, to previous literary creations such as Edgar Allan Poe’s armchair detective, Auguste Dupin. Conan Doyle acknowledged his debt to Poe, calling him “the father of the detective tale”, and the influence of Bell, his former teacher. He had imagined what would happen “if a scientific man like Bell was to come into the detective business”, and the result was Holmes – a new kind of crime fighter, who took a rational approach to finding and weighing evidence.