Queen Mary's dolls book collection. . . .

Was Doyle included?

Did anyone catch the obvious nod to Sherlock Holmes in. . .

Mr. Peabody and Sherman?

'Elementary' S3E3 - 'Just a regular irregular' - a review

One of last seasons Irregulars, Harlan Emple, math genius, has lots of free time on his hands and spends a great deal of it doing math (half naked) scavenger hunts. In this episode one of these hunts leads to the dead body of another hunter playing the same game.
While the police interrogate him he drops the names of Holmes and Watson as friends, involving them in the investigation.


Although the case tonight did not involve much in the way of Canonical references, the mystery itself was at least a little interesting. Although it would have been more interesting if the math involved more than just games and lottery money. But again, the case was not the important part of this episode, once again.
After having a fairly good story last week, this week we fall back once again on the personalities and how they interact.
Millers Holmes was once again fairly strong Canonically, with, for me, only one unnecessary nod towards being weird. It seems like both 'Sherlock' and 'Elementary' need to throw out something for shock value in each episode. 'Sherlock' would do something like have Holmes show up at the Queen's residence in just a sheet, while 'Elementary' will have Holmes eat some crumbs out of a dead man's pocket. Although the dog biscuit could have been a good lead, the fact that the producers had him eat served no purpose. (This could also explain the producers need to always have Holmes comment on Joan's sex life.)

Where we had discussed a few months back about Irregulars appearing as such in 'Elementary', the question was finally answered in this one. To the extent that tonight that was even Kitty Winters role.
Some time down the road Winter's role in the stories is going to have to change and it will be interesting to see where it goes.
I guess we should also include Phil Simms as an Irregular as it seems he has a skill that Holmes requires knowledge of on occasion.

Tonight was about teaching Holmes what it truly means to be a mentor, as suggested by his interactions with both Winters and Emple.

We do also see the relationship between Kitty and Joan improving.

I do have one question however; How did that tiny mathematician get that really, really big guy into that cabinet? And how do you close the door on an irregular surface with out the moth balls rolling out?

Canoically there was not much to 'Play the Game' with this week. I do however think the knife throwing segment was a nod to Holmes being bored when he has no work.
Other than that. . . . .

Although better than the first episode, it was not up to last weeks and lacked any Canonical references that could have made it fun. With that in mind, I can only give this episode. .

Hot of the presses. . . two days ago. . .

Solving The Mystery Of Sherlock Holmes

The following excerpt, which explores the mystery of Sherlock Holmes's character and how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories came to stay permanently in the public domain, is an excerpt from In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon:

So who is this Holmes fellow, anyway? The world’s most perfect observing and reasoning machine, yet his method seems to depend heavily on nicotine-fuelled flights of imagination. A bare-knuckle and martial-arts fighter, who also claims to be the laziest thing in shoe leather. A lethargic amateur actor with a drug problem, yet a man capable of extreme physical exertions. A solitary misanthrope -- who has two friends (doctor and housekeeper) so devoted they would lay down their lives for him.

A solver of mysteries, who is a mystery himself.

Holmes as an archetype -- the word means "original model" -- is of one of the defining images of the past 150 years, a variation on Jung’s “artist-scientist” figure. The world did not know what it lacked until Conan Doyle showed us -- but then, stand back, for when an archetype comes to life, he is, in the terminology of the new millennium, a meme.

The meme is a contagious artifact -- image, idea, phrase, behavior -- that spreads like a virus. And like any other virus, be it biological or computer-based, it grows, reproduces, mutates—and above all, affects its host. And as a virus holds a world of genetic information in its DNA, a viral meme can carry a lot of meaning on its narrow shoulders.
Variations on the theme of Holmes have been played ever since the man first saw print. Some have been whimsical, others deadly serious; some have even taught us something about ourselves. For Sherlock Holmes is both us, and a super-hero, armed not with greater-than-human powers, but with wits, experience, a small community of dependable friends, and the occasional singlestick or riding crop. Like the artist-scientist, Holmes takes a mass of cold, unrelated, and inert fact, shapes it between his narrow, nicotine-stained hands, and then electrifies it -- and us -- with a bolt of inspiration.

Come to think of it, perhaps we should envision him, not as an archetype, but as a golem, a mud figure brought to life by human need.

In any event, Sherlock Holmes shows no sign of flagging in this new era. A century and a quarter after the world was greeted by his gleeful cry at a laboratory discovery, men and women still find Holmes the ideal vessel to carry a variety of stories, aspirations, reflections.

The current volume finds another group of those restless minds, men and women who look for companionship on the road, and gleefully find themselves.... in the company of Sherlock Holmes.

This book took an amazing journey to end up in your hands. It began when Les was asked to assemble a panel on Sherlock Holmes (no surprise there) for Left Coast Crime, a conference held in 2010 in Los Angeles. He agreed, chose Laurie King for the panel, and then asked for Jan Burke, Lee Child, and Michael Connelly. “But those are the guests of honor!” he was told. He knew that, but he also knew that they were all fans of the Sherlock Holmes canon. Our panel was a great hit. Jan, Lee, and Michael all chimed with erudite commentary on topics Sherlockian (usually after a preface of, “Well, I don’t really know much about Sherlock Holmes...").

From this panel sprang the idea of a book. We put it together in 2011 -- A Study in Sherlock -- and were delighted at how many friends wanted to play “The Game,” creating stories inspired by the canon. Others said they’d love to but had other deadlines, and so the idea of a second volume was conceived before the first was published.

During the preparation of that first volume, the Conan Doyle Estate -- collateral relatives of Sir Arthur, who own the U.S. copyrights to the ten Sherlock Holmes stories published after 1922 -- asserted that we had to obtain their permission to use the characters of Holmes and Watson in new stories. We disagreed, but the publisher chose to simplify matters by paying for permission.

Meanwhile, the world of Sherlock Holmes got bigger. "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" broke all box-office records for a film about Sherlock Holmes. (Les, a technical advisor, takes full credit for its success.) Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, set records in England and America for viewing audiences and brought a new generation of readers into the Sherlock Holmes fold. Almost simultaneously, Elementary, with Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, gave its leads the distinction of having appeared on-screen as Holmes and Watson more than any other actors in history.

In 2012, as we readied this volume for publication, the Conan Doyle Estate notified the publisher that if we did not obtain a license for the use of the characters of Holmes and Watson, the Estate would block distribution of the book. At that, the long-simmering dispute came to a head.

“Leslie Klinger v. The Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd” was filed in federal courts, and the Free Sherlock movement was born, seeking definitive judgment that the characters of Holmes and Watson were no longer protected by U.S. copyright law. The argument was: since fifty of the original Doyle stories were in the public domain (that is, free of copyright protection), the remaining ten -- although retaining their copyright to original characters and situations -- did not redefine the central characters of the stories, and thus, Holmes, Watson, and the others were free to be used in new ways.

The District Court agreed, as did the Seventh Circuit court of appeals. We made history, and Sherlock Holmes is “free.” Hardly Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, although the case felt like that at times.

Excerpted from In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger. Copyright © 2014 by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger. Reprinted by arrangement with Pegasus Books. All rights reserved.

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ACD and WW1

Prose & Poetry - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

When World War One broke out in 1914 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tried to enlist in the military stating, "I am fifty-five but I am very strong and hardy, and can make my voice audible at great distances, which is useful at drill."

His offer was refused but that didn't stop Sir Arthur from contributing to the war effort in every way possible.  In fact, he was active in defence of his country even before war broke out.

The Prince Henry Tour

Conan Doyle had a strong feeling that conflict was coming after a 1911 automobile event.  That year he took part in the International Road Competition organized by Prince Henry of Prussia.  Known as the Prince Henry Tour, this contest was designed to pit the quality of British automobiles against German automobiles.  The route took the participants from Hamburg, Germany to London.

Conan Doyle and his wife, Jean, were one of the British driving teams.  Each of the ninety cars involved in the contest carried a military observer from the opposite team.  Conan Doyle was surprised at the hostile attitudes of many of the German observers.  He also heard much talk about the inevitability of war.

The British won the competition, but most of the participants came away with the conviction that war was near.

Danger!

Alarmed by what he'd seen in the Prince Henry Tour Conan Doyle began to study German war literature.  He saw that the submarine and the airplane were going to be important factors in the next war.  He was particularly concerned about the threat of submarines blockading food shipments to Britain.

Conan Doyle endorsed the Channel Tunnel proposal as a way of safeguarding Britain from this threat.  The tunnel would run between France and England.  Conan Doyle argued that the tunnel would ensure that Britain couldn't be cut off from the rest of Europe during wartime and would provide increased tourism revenues during peacetime.

Convinced that this was a vital precaution Conan Doyle eventually took his idea to the public in the form of a story.  Danger! Being the Log of Captain John Sirius appeared in the July 1914 edition of the Strand Magazine.  The story dealt with a conflict between Britain and a fictional country called Norland.  In the story, Norland is able to bring Britain to its knees by the use of a small submarine fleet.

Sadly Conan Doyle's warnings were ignored, at least by the British.  German officials were later quoted as saying that the idea of the submarine blockade came to them after hearing Conan Doyle's warnings against such an event.  How much of that statement was truth and how much was propaganda designed to cause conflict within Britain is not known.

Private Conan Doyle

When war finally did break out in 1914 Conan Doyle was fifty-five years old.  His age didn't stop him from trying to enlist in the military.

In a letter to the war office he stated, "I think I may say that my name is well known to the younger men of this country and that if I were to take a commission at my age it would set an example which might be of help."  He went on to list some of his qualifications, "I am fifty-five but I am very strong and hardy, and can make my voice audible at great distances, which is useful at drill."

Despite his generous offer and his loud voice Conan Doyle's application was denied.  However he was determined to help the war effort in any way possible.  He next set about to organize defence units comprised of civilian volunteers.  The War Office ordered those units to be disbanded and replaced them with units that were centrally administered through their office.

Conan Doyle's unit became the Crowborough Company of the Sixth Royal Sussex Volunteer Regiment.  He was offered the command position in the new battalion, but Conan Doyle refused.  He wanted to show his countrymen that all were equal in the defence of Britain.  He entered the group as Private Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Power of the Press

In the first few weeks of the war three British cruisers were lost.  The 1,400 men aboard the cruisers were lost as well.  Conan Doyle thought the loss of life was preventable.  He wrote to the War Office urging that each sailor be given an "inflatable rubber belt" to assist the sailors in case their ships went down.

Sir Arthur was never reluctant to use his personal popularity when fighting for a just cause.  Therefore he also sent letters to the press proposing these very same ideas.  He knew that while the War Office might ignore the voice of one man, it couldn't ignore the voice of public opinion.

His plan worked.  The government soon ordered inflatable rubber collars, the forerunner of today's lifejackets, for the country's sailors.

Conan Doyle would use this same tactic later when advocating that lifeboats be carried on military vessels.  He also urged that body armour be issued to frontline soldiers.

The British Campaign in France and Flanders

While World War One still raged on Conan Doyle began work on The British Campaign in France and Flanders.  It was an extremely detailed history of the war.  Conan Doyle was very proud of it and went to great pains to make it as accurate as possible.

He gathered material for the book from any sources including the British military.  However the book wasn't as balanced as it could be.  Conan Doyle totally trusted the material he received from some of his sources.  The bias of these sources made its way into the book.

The British Campaign in France and Flanders was initially published in six volumes.  The first volumes didn't sell well because they were published when the war was still being fought.  The public wanted to hear about the day's battles rather that read a history of the early days of the war.  After the war ended the public, possibly wanting a break from death and destruction, had little interest in reading about the conflict.  Conan Doyle said the book was, "an undeserved literary disappointment".

From One War to the Next

Sir Arthur's suggestions on warfare were thought of as intrusive by some members of the British government.  However he had some supporters as well.  One of those, the First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, would play an important role in World War Two.  The man's name was Winston Churchill.

Article contributed by Marsha Perry at The Chronicles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Click here to read Conan Doyle's account of fighting at Antwerp in 1914; click here to read his summary of the November 1917 Battle of Cambrai.

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Not a review - But Sherlock Holmes and WW1

A New Sherlock Holmes Adventure from World War I

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic detective character is mostly in the public domain now, meaning that anyone should be free to create new tales starring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. Novelist George Mann has just published The Spirit Box, a new adventure set in 1915 during the Great War. We’ve got an exclusive excerpt.

As Zeppelins rain death upon the rooftops of London, eminent members of society begin to behave erratically: a Member of Parliament throws himself naked into the Thames after giving a pro-German speech to the House; a senior military advisor suggests surrender before feeding himself to a tiger at London Zoo; a famed suffragette suddenly renounces the women’s liberation movement and throws herself under a train.

In desperation, an aged Mycroft Holmes sends to Sussex for the help of his brother, Sherlock.

Mann is also the author of the Newbury & Hobbes detective novels and the characters make a cameo appearance in The Spirit Box. Our excerpt from Chapter Three has Holmes and Watson visit the War Office to inquire into the death of military adviser Herbert Grange.

Interested readers can check out Chapter One at Tor​.com and Chapter Two at CriminalElement​.com.

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Contacting the First World War dead – Sherlock Holmes would never have approved‏

It is almost midnight. The only light emanates from a few candles placed around the room. In the middle of the drawing room is a round table adorned only with a pale linen cloth. Around it sits a couple and a companion. The man is in his fifties, barrel-chested with a long moustache. He holds his wife’s hands. The third person, a medium, rocks to and fro, her eyes tightly closed. She is mumbling in a high-pitched voice, groaning, breathing hard, but, frothing slightly from the mouth, her words are unintelligible. The couple watch her intently, waiting, hoping for a communication.

Suddenly it comes. Her tone changes.  ‘Jean, it is I,’ she says in the voice of a young man.
Instantly, the couple recognise the voice. The woman, Jean, gasps, ‘It is Kingsley.’
‘Is that you, boy?’ says the man, his hands tightening over his wife’s.
Lowering his voice to a whisper, Kingsley says, ‘Father, forgive me.’
The man’s heart lurches, ‘There was never anything to forgive. You were the best son a man ever had.’
He feels a hand on his head then a kiss just above his brow. It takes his breath away.
‘Are you happy?’ he cries.
There is a pause and then very gently, ‘Yes, I am so happy.’

‘Christianity is dead’

Contacting the dead was a popular pursuit post-First World War, when so many parents had lost loved ones in the killing fields of the Western Front, Gallipoli and further afield. The war was without precedent in terms of fatalities, and people, throughout Europe, haunted by a generation of slaughtered men, found themselves struggling for answers. The technology of warfare had defeated everything they previously held dear – and religion had failed to provide the answers. Instead, many turned to spiritualism as a means to contact their dead directly.

And the leading proponent for spiritualism was none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. His greatest invention, the straight-laced Sherlock Holmes, would have thoroughly disapproved of his creator’s conversion to séances, Ouija boards and mediums. But the great writer had lost his son, Kingsley, in October 1918, and like so many grief-struck parents, he was desperate to commune with his dead son from beyond the grave. ‘Christianity is dead,’ he once declared, ‘How else could ten million young men have marched out to slaughter? Did any moral force stop that war? No. Christianity is dead – dead!’

Kingsley Conan Doyle had been wounded in the neck on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916. 20,000 British soldiers were killed that day, plus another 40,000 wounded – the worst, single day in Britain’s military history. Two years later, however, Kingsley was recovering. But in the summer of 1918, the whole world was swept by Spanish Flu, the most devastating pandemic in modern times, which claimed at least 50 million lives. Among them, on 28 October, was 25-year-old Kingsley, his resistance compromised by his battlefield injury.

Four months later, the pandemic claimed Conan Doyle’s brother, Innes. Conan Doyle fell into a deep depression but consoled by the fact he knew he could, at some point, reach out and contact them on the other side. But Conan Doyle’s belief in spiritualism was not caused by his son and brother’s deaths – it had been his firm conviction for many decades.

Born into a strict Roman Catholic family, Conan Doyle had all but lost his faith by the time he was 17. Declaring himself agnostic he nonetheless felt an emptiness in his being. So, as a young newly-qualified doctor practising in Southsea, near Portsmouth, he researched what he called ‘new religions’. In 1880, the 21-year-old doctor attended his first séance. It made a huge impression on him.

Seven years later, Conan Doyle published the first of a series that would make him a rich man and make his name the world over – A Study in Scarlet, starring Sherlock Holmes. But it was also in this same year, 1887, that Conan Doyle declared himself a spiritualist.

Conan Doyle formed a small group that met regularly in Southsea, trying their hand, with mixed results, at séances. But it was the appearance of a real medium, experienced at summoning the dead, that convinced Conan Doyle. ‘After weighing the evidence,’ he wrote, ‘I could no more doubt the existence of the phenomena than I could doubt the existence of lions in Africa.’

The Death of Sherlock Holmes

Conan Doyle wrote more Sherlock Holmes and the pipe-smoking detective made him rich. But very soon Holmes and his erstwhile companion, Dr Watson, were keeping Conan Doyle from what he really wanted to do. Writing to his mother, Conan Doyle said, ‘[Holmes] takes my mind from better things’. For Conan Doyle, ‘better things’ meant spiritualism. The death of Holmes was not long in coming. In 1893, only six years after his first appearance, Conan Doyle killed off his indomitable sleuth, drowning him in the Reichenbach Falls in the Swiss Alps.

Now, free of the demands of his detective, Conan Doyle was able to devote all his energies to spiritualism. But not for long. So outraged were his fans by the death of Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle had no choice but to bring him back to life, employing a literary sleight of hand. Sherlock Holmes was to remain his occasional and mostly unwelcome companion for the rest of his life.

In 1914, the Great War, as it was originally called, broke out. No war has been so associated with the paranormal as the First World War. The first and most notorious case occurred in August 1914. British forces had just been beaten by an advance of Germans near the Belgium town of Mons and were forced into a retreat. As the army retreated, British soldiers claimed they saw apparitions either in the form of angels or archers from the Battle of Agincourt, 1415, depending on who was telling the tale, that provided them safe passage.

Conan Doyle’s brother-in-law and good friend, Malcolm Leckie, was killed at Mons. Together with his second wife, Jean, Conan Doyle immediately began trying to dredge Leckie up from the dead through a series of séances.

The Other Side

In 1916, with the war at its height, and still seeking answers, Conan Doyle stepped up his interest in spiritualism. Whereas before he had only ‘dallied’ with the subject, now he was prepared to embrace fully a ‘breaking down of the walls between two worlds, a direct undeniable message from beyond, a call of hope and of guidance to the human race at the time of its deepest affliction’. Spiritualism was the answer to the world’s problems.

Kingsley, a firm Christian, had had no truck with his father’s spiritualism, which is why, when talking to him from the ‘other side’, he begged his father’s forgiveness for having always doubted him.

Following the war, Sir and Lady Conan Doyle stepped up their campaign – they toured the country and journeyed to Australia and the US. With the energy and enthusiasm of committed converts, they embarked on a series of gruelling tours, proclaiming their message to huge audiences.

Many of his friends and contemporaries found him foolish, not least his friend, the American Harry Houdini, the famous escapologist and magician. Houdini, momentarily interested in spiritualism following the death of his mother, soon realised it was nothing but hoax and trickery, performed by mercenary conmen exploiting the bereaved and vulnerable. The two men went to great lengths to prove each other wrong to the point of falling out. Following Houdini’s death in 1926, Conan Doyle hoped to settle it for once and all by summoning the magician from the dead. But Houdini, even from the other side, held to his guns.

The Cottingley Fairies

Conan Doyle’s reputation was questioned even more when he declared his utter belief in the Cottingley fairies. Two young girls, cousins, had used paper cut-outs of fairies and photographed themselves with them in their garden in the village of Cottingley in Yorkshire. By the time Conan Doyle, a great believer in fairies, was declaring the photos’ authenticity to the world, even going so far to write a book on the subject, The Coming of the Fairies, the two young girls dared not say that it was no more than a silly prank.

Conan Doyle dutifully continued to write Sherlock Holmes; the last collection of short stories, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, was published in 1927, three years before Conan Doyle’s death. But despite the ridicule and the antagonism, Conan Doyle stuck to his spiritualist beliefs as he entered old age. In 1930, aged 71, he wrote, ‘The reader will judge that I have had many adventures. The greatest and most glorious of all awaits me now’. He died soon afterwards, on 7 July 1930.

The greatest and most glorious adventure

At his memorial service, held on 13 July in the Albert Hall, an empty chair was placed next to Jean, his widow. 6,000 people crammed in, many out of respect but most, perhaps, in the anticipation of a memorial service with a difference – an appearance from the man himself. They were not to be disappointed. After the usual sombre service, a woman admired by Conan Doyle for her qualities as a medium, Estelle Roberts, took to the stage. Proceedings now resembled a spiritualist stage show as she passed on messages of comfort from the other side to members of her audience. After thirty minutes or so, she turned to the empty chair and shouted, ‘He is here.’ Only she, as the medium, could see him and, later, she said that Conan Doyle had been there throughout congratulating her on her performance. Speaking to Lady Jean, Roberts said, ‘I have a message for you from Arthur.’ She whispered a few words in Lady Jean’s ear.

What those words were, Lady Jean never said and we will never know, but she smiled and took obvious comfort from them.

Rupert Colley

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St Louis as gone all out to . . . . .

Here is Holmes' image on the side of the Science Centers planetarium, which in itself is a local icon.

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We had our local societies event there on Friday night and it was good to see old faces from local groups.

The whole Jack the Ripper thing has never been of interest to me, but othesr may enjoy it. . . .

'Real Sherlock Holmes' solved ripper murders, but aristocracy covered it up claims new book by Author Diane Madsen

November 10, 2014 7:05 AM EST  

(PRWEB UK) 10 November 2014

The recent claim that DNA on a shawl purported to be from one of the Ripper victims can identify immigrant Polish hairdresser Aaron Kosminski as Jack the Ripper has been further undermined by the revelation that the 'Real Sherlock Holmes,' Joseph Bell, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle both identified the same suspect. Author Diane Madsen claims in her new book, 'The Conan Doyle Notes – The Secret of Jack The Ripper', that a cover-up by the aristocracy hid the real identity of the killer. The evidence against Kosminski being the Ripper is overwhelming and the credibility of the shawl is limited at best.

A recent article from the Smithsonian comments, "Others, however, are still skeptical. First, the shawl has been 'openly handled by loads of people and been touched, breathed on, spat upon.'"

Also, Catherine Eddowes was a prostitute. Should this shawl in fact be hers, and should the DNA not be the result of later cross contamination, there is no way to demonstrate that the DNA traces found did not result from an earlier paid encounter between Eddowes and Kosminski, who lived in the same area.

Aside from the DNA, Kosminski is a poor suspect. He spoke Polish not English according to the records where he was institutionalized. He didn't fit the eyewitness description of the Ripper. He certainly would not have warranted consideration of a Royal Pardon.

The real clues in the Jack the Ripper case point to a completely different suspect identified by Doyle and Bell. They were given the Ripper files, and they made a report on their suspect to Scotland Yard. The report has never been released. Why? Why did they both keep the identity of their suspect secret? This suspect was investigated by Scotland Yard.and is mentioned in a cryptic letter written by Inspector Frederick George Abberline, who did much of the actual work on the Ripper case. The Radio Times recently reported that, "As expanded upon in her novel, Madsen believes their investigations led them to one James K Stephen – tutor to Prince Albert Victor, son of the Prince of Wales – and that Stephen's royal connections could have been behind Doyle's decision to stay quiet, for fear of causing a scandal."

In a bizarre twist, the publishers of the Conan Doyle Notes, MX Publishing, are located in Princess Park Manor, an 1850s building in North London which used to be Europe's largest mental institution converted into apartments – and the very same institution that Kosminski was held. Steve Emecz, from MX comments, "It's a crazy coincidence that Kosminski was held in our very building. The records show that he spoke little English whereas it's generally understood that the Ripper spoke perfect English."

About MX Publishing
MX Publishing is the award winning world's largest Sherlock Holmes publishers. They are based in London, England, but their seventy plus authors are spread around the world. Most of their one hundred and fifty books are fiction, but they also have many biographical works on Conan Doyle. In 2013 MX made a big splash on the international stage with the performance biography 'Benedict Cumberbatch In Transition' which has sold in its tens of thousands in English, Japanese and Chinese.http://www.mxpublishing.co.uk

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/11/prweb12296664.htm

The Duck of the Baskervilles! Unless you get the Mirror, you heard it here first, maybe. . . .

Duck 'poisoner' on rampage in town which inspired Sherlock Holmes epic The Hound of the Baskervilles

• Nov 07, 2014 10:06
• By Chris Richards

A Muscovy duck is thought to have been killed using antifreeze, while other birds have been found with pink staining on their feathers

• 
  

Whodunnit: A Muscovy duck is thought to have been poisoned in the town which inspired the Sherlock Holmes epic The Hound of the Baskervilles

A duck poisoner is thought to be on the rampage in the Devon town which inspired the Sherlock Holmes epic The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Residents of Buckfastleigh, on the edge of Dartmoor, fear a killer is in their midst after one of the quiet market town's Muscovy ducks died after ingesting a toxic pink substance believed to be antifreeze.

Other have been found with their feathers covered in the colourful chemical.

Pam Barrett who cares for the feral flock on the town's Orchard Millennium Green is convinced they are victims of foul play - possibly at the hands of a local who objects to the protected birds’ droppings.

Mrs Barrett told the Daily Telegraph: "I discovered the ducks were covered in a bright pink staining - a fluorescent pink - a very odd colour.

"I researched what poisons were pink and the colour and death all points to antifreeze.

"If that's the case it's despicable.

"It's cruelty and would be destruction of a much loved group of animals which have overwhelming support in the town.

"To do such a thing in a public place because of a vendetta against the ducks and risking the health of children and wild animals is absolutely horrific."

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Protected species: The death of a Muscovy duck in Buckfastleigh is being treated as a crime

The duck which had ingested the poison died shortly after being taken to Dart Vale Vets.

Vet Vicky Roberts told the newspaper: "It was struggling to breathe and had a reddy, orange splashing on its feathers.

"If they are being poisoned with antifreeze it's a horrible way for a duck to die.

"If it is poison it would appear to be deliberate and that's a concern."

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said: "We are investigating this as a crime of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

"A duck is suspected of being poisoned with a pink liquid and later died."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is rumoured to have penned The Hound of the Baskervilles after learning of the story surrounding the death of Richard Cabel, Lord of the Manor of Brook, west of Buckfastleigh.