Here are some facts about Sherlock Holmes.
- Sherlock Holmes was a popular fictional detective who featured in books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He has become by far the best known literary detective ever created.
- Holmes appeared in 4 long stories and 56 short stories written by Doyle.
- Doyle became tired of his creation, killing him off in 1893, but then bringing him back to life due to public complaints.
- Sherlock Holmes was probably based on a real person, a forensic science lecturer named Joseph Bell. The Holmes books themselves influenced the development of forensic science.
- Holmes has also been portrayed in dozens of films, and is the character most often portrayed in films. He has been portrayed by Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing and Jeremy Brett.
- In the books, Holmes lived at 221B Baker Street in London, along with his assistant Dr. Watson. At that address today is a Sherlock Holmes museum where letters are received daily asking for Holmes’ help.
- The first Sherlock Holmes long story was A Study in Scarlet, published in 1887. The first short story was A Scandal in Bohemia, published in The Strand magazine in 1891.
- Sherlock Holmes is a master of disguise, an expert boxer and swordsman and he can play the violin. However, he has no knowledge of politics, literature or astronomy.
- Holmes does not wear a deerstalker hat in the stories, despite many illustrations showing this. Neither does he say his most famous phrase of “Elementary, my dear Watson” in the books.
- In Sherlock, a British TV series, Sherlock Holmes (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and Dr Watson (played by Martin Freeman) solve crimes in present-day London.
- The dates of Holmes’ birth and date are never clear in the original books. Holmes retired to the Sussex coast to keep bees and to write a book about bee keeping.
- There are statues of Sherlock Holmes in both Edinburgh and London. London also has a Sherlock Holmes hotel and pub, as well as streets named after Holmes and Watson.
