This month, we join a young doctor struggling to recruit patients for his medical practice in ‘Crabbe’s Practice’ from 1884, a story that Conan Doyle rewrote in its entirety in 1922. You can read the two versions of the story here. Or listen to an audiobook version of the 1922 version here. The episode will appear on our YouTube page. Please like and subscribe. You can follow us @doingsofdoyle on BlueSky. Synopsis When they were fellow medical students at Edinburgh University, Robert Hudson had foreseen a successful and rewarding career for the eccentric but brilliant John Waterhouse Crabbe. His prophecy appears to have been fulfilled when Crabbe invites Hudson to stay at his impressive and well-appointed residence-cum-practice at Bridport. All, however, is not as it seems: Crabbe is the area’s least regarded doctor, despite his local family connections, and he is desperate need of a plan to attract patients and stave off bankruptcy. Hudson provides an answer: he will play the role of a well-heeled gentleman who is suddenly taken ill on Crabbe’s doorstep and then cured within. Crabbe then further dramatises the plot to involve Hudson’s miraculous recovery from a staged drowning. What could possibly go wrong? Next time on Doings of Doyle We look at one of the last stories penned by Conan Doyle, his Regency short story ‘The End of Devil Hawker' (1930). You can read the story here. Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.
This episode, we welcome to the podcast, James Machin, to talk about the new edition of The Stark Munro Letters (1895) he has edited for Edinburgh University Press. About James Machin James is a writer, researcher, and editor, whose recent books include the Edinburgh Edition of the Works of Arthur Conan Doyle's version of The Stark Munro Letters (2024) and The Strange Stories of John Buchan for British Library Publishing (2025). He edited Faunus, the journal of The Friends of Arthur Machen, for over ten years, and has taught at Birkbeck (University of London), the Royal College of Art, and the University of Bedfordshire. He has recently commenced work on the Edinburgh Edition of Round the Fire Stories. The Stark Munro Letters (Edinburgh University Press, 2025) The first new edition of The Stark Munro Letters since the early 1980s Contains detailed introduction and scholarly apparatus Extensive notes explore the historical and biographical references Appendixes that collect original transcriptions of previously inaccessible archival material Ideal for students and scholars interested in Arthur Conan Doyle, medical fiction, popular fiction, autobiographical fiction, and epistolary fiction This is the first scholarly edition of Arthur Conan Doyle’s epistolary novel, originally serialised in the Idler, 1894–95, and long out of print. With its first-hand testimony of the life of a doctor at the outset of his career in the late nineteenth century, The Stark Munro Letters will appeal to anyone with an interest in medical history. It is based on his experiences during the eight years he spent as a General Practitioner, before becoming a professional author in 1890. By some way the most autobiographical of Conan Doyle’s novels—written at the height of Holmes’s popularity—it is also the most personal in terms of presenting his worldview during his formative years, including ruminations on moral philosophy, religion, science, and evolutionary theory. Moreover, it is entertaining and incredibly vivid—a contemporary critic described the mercurial Cullingworth as ‘one of the finest characters Dr. Doyle has yet drawn’. Source: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-stark-munro-letters.html Bibliography The Strange Stories of John Buchan (British Library, 2025) British Weird: Selected Short Fiction 1893 – 1937 (Handheld Classics, 2020) Faunus: The Decorative Imagination of Arthur Machen (Strange Attractor Press, 2019) Of Mud and Flame: A Penda's Fen Sourcebook (MIT Press, 2019) Weird Fiction in Britain 1880–1939 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) The Cosy Room and Other Stories (Tartarus Press, 2017) Also mentioned Margie Deck (ed), Sherlock Holmes Into The Fire (Belanger Books, 2025) https://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Into-Fire-Margie-ebook/dp/B0FJK3H29X Next time on Doings of Doyle We continue with Conan Doyle’s medical fiction with a related comic tale, ‘Crabbe’s Practice’ (1884). You can read the story here. Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.
This episode, we travel to Wiltshire where an Indian army surgeon is being hounded by a very unwelcome visitor, in ‘The Story of the Brown Hand’ from 1898. Read the show notes at https://www.doingsofdoyle.com/2025/06/64-story-of-brown-hand-1898.html You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Story_of_the_Brown_Hand Or listen to an audiobook version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-tK9m42tKY The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle And follow us on BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/doingsofdoyle.com). We don’t do Twitter no more. Synopsis Following his retirement to an estate on the edge of Salisbury Plain after 40 years’ service in India, Sir Dominic Holden has invited his nephew Dr Hardacre to stay for a weekend. Hardacre assumes that this is simply a family courtesy, as he is only sixth in line of inheritance to his uncle’s fortune. He finds an hospitable enough household but one wrapped in an intense gloom, whose source he cannot fathom. Until, that is, Sir Dominic shows great interest in Hardacre’s ghost-hunting exploits with the Psychical Research Society… Next time on Doings of Doyle… We will be joined by a mystery interview guest… Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.
Hello and welcome to Episode 63. This episode we travel to the very north of mainland Scotland where one man’s solitude is interrupted by two mysterious castaways, in ‘The Man from Archangel’ from 1885. You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Man_from_Archangel Or listen to a Librivox reading here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts2yXxclU-c The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle And follow us on BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/doingsofdoyle.com). We don’t do Twitter no more. Synopsis Having come into an unexpected inheritance, the morose and misanthropic John McVittie is able to give up his unrewarding legal practice in the English Midlands and retire to a remote coastal estate in Caithness in eastern Scotland. Here he pursues his esoteric scientific and philosophic interests, with only his aged housekeeper for company. But his quiet existence is disrupted when a Russian schooner is wrecked in a storm and McVittie rescues a young woman from the doomed ship. Apparently, however, she is not the only survivor as shortly afterwards McVittie discovers that his lonely house is under observation from a mysterious bearded stranger… Next time on Doings of Doyle… We discuss ACD’s unconventional ghost story, ‘The Story of the Brown Hand’ (1898), from his Round the Fire Stories. Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.
This episode, we welcome to the podcast journalist and author Andrew Finkel to talk about his debut novel The Adventure of the Second Wife (2024), a multi-layered mystery in which an avid Sherlockian investigate a missing Sherlock Holmes story… About Andrew Finkel Based for many years in Istanbul, Andrew Finkel has corresponded for international media including The Times, The Economist, TIME, CNN and for the Latitude section of The New York Times. He is also a contributing editor and restaurant critic for Cornucopia Magazine. His articles, editorials and broadcast commentaries have appeared in an equal variety of media that includes The Washington Post, The Guardian, Observer, Financial Times, The Art Newspaper, The Spectator and the BBC. His experiences of working in the Turkish language press, in newsrooms, as a columnist and on television, prompted him some ten years ago to co-found Platform24 (P24) a human rights NGO that supports independent journalism and free expression. Among its projects is the popular Kıraathane, the Istanbul Literature House. He is the author of scholarly articles on press capture and media integrity as well as the Oxford University Press handbook, Turkey, What Everyone Needs to Know. His recently published debut novel The Adventure of the Second Wife revolves around the well-documented obsession which Abdülhamid II, the last great Ottoman Sultan, had for the stories of Sherlock Holmes. The Adventure of the Second Wife (Even Keel Press, 2024) Strange that Abdülhamid II, the last great Ottoman Sultan, would have Sherlock Holmes stories read to him before he went to sleep. Even stranger is that his obsession helped change the course of history. The explanation lies in the mystery of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s dying words, that the one Sherlock adventure still to intrigue him was that of ‘The Second Wife’. For no such story exists… Or does it? The Adventure of the Second Wife is the debut novel of renowned journalist Andrew Finkel – a clever, compelling mystery about a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast who with the help of a brilliant Turkish professor, tries to solve the enigma of Arthur Conan Doyle’s dying words only to upend his life in the process. Purchase from Cornucopia Press here. Next time on Doings of Doyle We head back into Gothic territory with ‘The Man from Archangel’ (1885), claimed to be one of Conan Doyle’s favourite stories. You can read the story here. Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.
Hello and welcome to Episode 61. Today, we return to Baker Street – or should that be Montague Street? – for another memoir of Sherlock Holmes, ‘The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual’ (1893). Read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Adventure_of_the_Musgrave_Ritual The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle And follow us on BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/doingsofdoyle.com). We don’t do Twitter no more. Synopsis Whilst tidying his papers in the Baker Street flat, Sherlock Holmes unearths some relics of one of his earliest cases. His client, an old university associate called Reginald Musgrave, hires the nascent detective to investigate the recent disappearances of Hurlstone’s butler and one of the housemaids. It is quite clear, however, that this is no elopement, and central to the mystery is the old family catechism known as the Musgrave Ritual… Next time on Doings of Doyle... We hope to be joined by journalist and author Andrew Finkel to discuss his novel The Adventure of the Second Wife… Support the podcast Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
Hello and welcome to Episode 60. Today, we conclude our three-part discussion of The Lost World, Conan Doyle's classic novel from 1912. Read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Lost_World Read the show notes here: https://www.doingsofdoyle.com/2025/02/60-lost-world-1912-part-3.html The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle And follow us @doingsofdoyle.com on BlueSky. We don’t do Twitter no more. Synopsis Having allied themselves with the Indian population of the Lost World and defeated their ape man oppressors, the Challenger expedition can now explore this strange realm in greater safety, although much of their energy is also expended in working out ways to escape from the mysterious plateau. Various elaborate methods are experimented with, but there may yet be a simpler route back to civilisation where they should reap the rewards of their hardships and discoveries. And they might not be leaving entirely empty handed… Next time We hope to be joined by an interview guest, or else we will dip into another case of Sherlock Holmes... Support the podcast Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
Hello and welcome to Episode 59. Today, we rejoin Professor Challenger and his party of intrepid adventurers as they reach The Lost World, in part two of our three-part discussion of the celebrated novel. Read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Lost_World Read the show notes here: https://www.doingsofdoyle.com/2025/01/59-lost-world-1912-part-2.html The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle And follow us @doingsofdoyle.com on BlueSky. We don’t do Twitter no more. Synopsis After the scientific and media establishments of London have dismissed the claims of the eccentric and controversial Professor Challenger to have discovered a hidden South American plateau where prehistoric signs of life still exist, he has assembled a small team of independent observers to test his assertions: the journalist-narrator Edward Malone, the comparative anatomist Professor Summerlee, and the hunter-adventurer Lord John Roxton duly cross the Atlantic aboard the liner Francisca to Manaos from where they will retrace Challenger’s route into the Amazonian interior. But upon arrival, when they open the envelope containing his instructions, a surprise awaits them, and this is only the first of many unexpected developments to welcome them into this strange new world… Next time We return to the Lost World for the final instalments... Support the podcast Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
Hello and welcome to Episode 58. Today, we are delighted to welcome to the podcast Phil Cheadle and Edward Bennett, the director and star respectively of ‘Selecting a Ghost’, a stage adaptation of the Conan Doyle short story which was performed in Norwood, South London, in November 2024. Listen to our episode about ‘Selecting a Ghost’ here: https://www.doingsofdoyle.com/2023/12/46-selecting-ghost-ghosts-of.html Read the Conan Doyle short story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Selecting_a_Ghost Listen to the podcast here: The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle And follow us @doingsofdoyle.com on BlueSky. Philip Cheadle Phil trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) and has an extensive range of theatre, television, and film credits. His notable stage roles include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End), Mrs. Affleck (National Theatre), Henry IV Part I & Part II, and Bedlam (Shakespeare’s Globe), as well as The Changeling (Cheek by Jowl), Reasons to Stay Alive and Far from the Madding Crowd (ETT), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sheffield Crucible), and Breaking the Code (Royal Exchange). On television, Phil has appeared in Harlots, Dark Angel, Crimson Fields, New Worlds, and Silent Witness. His film work includes 1917, John Carter, and the upcoming independent film Shalbourne, in which he plays the title role. In addition to his acting career, Phil is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Two Lines Productions. He recently adapted and directed Arthur Conan Doyle's short story Selecting a Ghost as an immersive, site-specific production for Stanley Arts’ Day of the Dead festival. Website: https://www.twolinesproductions.com/ IMDB for Phil Cheadle. Edward Bennett Ed’s diverse and extensive theatre work has seen him perform with some of the country’s leading companies and directors, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatre Royal Bath and Chichester Festival Theatre. On the small screen, Edward stars most recently in Joan for ITV and in Series 3 of Bridgerton for Netflix. You can also watch him in Series 1 and 2 of Sky drama Cobra as Peter Mot, Max Owen in Sky Atlantic’s Save Me Too, Industry for the BBC, Pennyworth for Warner Bros, Poldark for the BBC and Series 2 of ITV’s Victoria. Ed’s feature film work includes The Laureate directed by Jonathan Cape, Napoleon directed by Ridley Scott and as T E Lawrence in Benediction directed by Terence Davies. IMDB for Edward Bennett. Photograph credit Photographs by Cecilia Costello Photography. Next time We rejoin the intrepid Challenger expedition (not that one) as they journey further into The Lost World. Support the podcast Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
Hello and welcome to Episode 57. Today, we begin our long-awaited journey into The Lost World, Conan Doyle’s celebrated adventure novel which introduced Professor George Edward Challenger to the reading public. Read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Lost_World The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle And follow us @doingsofdoyle.com on BlueSky. Synopsis Edward Dunn Malone is a lowly young journalist at the Daily Gazette whose heart’s desire is to win the hand of the beautiful but exacting Gladys Hungerton. She, however, finds Malone lacking in ambition and the requisite spirit of manly competitiveness. She will only bow before another Burton or Stanley, and Malone must venture into the world to discover and conquer before she will consider his approaches. Luckily, his editor, McArdle, gives him the ideal opportunity by introducing him to the irascible, combative and press-hating Professor George Challenger who claims to have found evidence of the continued existence of prehistoric life in South America. Upon first approaching Challenger, Malone is thrown down the professor’s stairs. Then, in a surprising turn of events, he is given the opportunity to join a new expedition to the Amazon to prove – or refute – Challenger’s outlandish assertions… Next time We hope to be joined by an interview guest before we return to The Lost World in the new year. Support the podcast Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
Hello and welcome to Episode 56. Today, we journey to Conan Doyle’s hometown of Edinburgh where a young man falls foul of a mysterious, mesmeric beauty in ‘John Barrington Cowles’ (1884). Read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/John_Barrington_Cowles You can read the show notes here: https://www.doingsofdoyle.com/2024/10/56-john-barrington-cowles-1884.html The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle Synopsis At Edinburgh University in 1879, a friendship is formed between two medical students, Robert Armitage and John Barrington Cowles. Beyond his scientific pursuits and achievements, Cowles is also interested in art and, at an exhibition at the Scottish Academy, his attention is drawn towards a beautiful woman named Kate Northcott. She, however, is already promised in marriage to a law student named Reeves, although not for long. Her fiancé dies in strange circumstances and she and Cowles are soon engaged. But, as Armitage discovers, she is a woman with a veiled and sinister past which matches her forceful and mysteriously magnetic personality. What is her secret and how can her hold over his friend be broken? Next time We embark on our exploration of the Conan Doyle classic The Lost World (1912), taking the story to the point where our intrepid crew travel to South America. You can read it here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Lost_World Support the podcast Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
Hello and welcome to episode 55. This time, we look at a story that was for a long time not included in the works of Conan Doyle - 1884’s ‘The Blood-Stone Tragedy: A Druidical Story.’ Read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Blood-Stone_Tragedy:_A_Druidical_Story The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle Synopsis Whilst travelling in the English Midlands, the narrator hears a strange tale from a fellow traveller whose wife, in their pre-marital days, underwent a terrifying experience during a family holiday in North Wales. Frustrated by the domestic restrictions imposed upon her while the men of the party enjoy climbing expeditions, the intrepid Miss Madison decides to indulge in some local exploration on her own. She eventually becomes lost amongst the mountains and the valleys and is close to despair when she discovers a primitive hut and its odd inhabitant, a wild and bearded figure dressed in a white robe. But her relief at finding a potential guide soon turns to unease as her new acquaintance begins to talk of strange gods and human sacrifice… Next time ‘John Barrington Cowles’ (1884) – published two months after ‘The Blood-Stone Tragedy’ in Cassell’s and far better! – is our story next month. You can read it here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/John_Barrington_Cowles Support the podcast Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle Acknowledgements We would like to thank Michael Halewood of Halewood and Sons of Preston for his help on this episode: https://www.pbfa.org/members/halewood-sons; https://www.abebooks.co.uk/halewood-sons-aba-ilab-1867-preston/277945/sf Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
Hello and welcome to Episode 54. This time, we step into the world of international politics and diplomatic secrets in the Sherlock Holmes story ‘The Adventure of the Second Stain’ from December 1904. Read the story here: ACD Encyclopaedia – The Adventure of the Second Stain. Listen to an audiobook reading here: Magpie Audio – The Adventure of the Second Stain. Read the show notes here: Episode 54 Show Notes. Check out the Sherlock Holmes Society of London’s Scrapbook on The Second Stain The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle Synopsis On an Autumn morning, in an unspecified year, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson’s Baker Street rooms are graced by a visit from the Prime Minister, Lord Bellinger, and the Secretary for European Affairs, the Right Honourable Trelawney Hope. It transpires that a document of great moment – an intemperate letter written by an incautious foreign potentate – has gone missing from Hope’s dispatch box. It must be traced and returned if disastrous consequences are to be avoided. Holmes is rapidly on the scent and believes that one of only three conspiratorial agents – Eduardo Lucas, La Rothiere and Hugo Oberstein – could be involved. The investigative waters, however, are very soon muddied by an unexpected intervention from Lady Hilda Trelawney Hope and the brutal murder of Eduardo Lucas at his Westminster home – a case which falls on Inspector Lestrade, who calls Holmes’ attention to a curious discrepancy and a misplaced rug… Next time on Doings of Doyle… We look at Conan Doyle’s druidical mystery, ‘The Blood-Stone Tragedy’, published in Cassell’s Saturday Journal in 1884, which was, for a long time, lost to modern readers. You can read the story here: ACD Encyclopaedia – The Blood-Stone Tragedy. Support the podcast Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
Hello and welcome to Episode 53. Today, we discuss ‘The Coming of the Huns,’ one of Conan Doyle’s Tales of Long Ago, written and published in 1910. You can read the story here: ACD Encyclopaedia – The Coming of the Huns. Or listen to an audiobook reading here: The Coming of the Huns – Magpie Audio. The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle Synopsis Weary of the infighting between Christian sects in Fourth Century Constantinople, the Trinitarian Simon Melas heads northwards, beyond the Dneister, to live a secluded life of contemplation. Yet even in the wilderness he cannot find complete solitude. In a neighbouring cave he encounters an established hermit, Paul of Nicopolis. Their discourse however proves short-lived as Paul is a follower of the rival Arian philosophy. One evening, two years into his retreat, Simon’s peace is disturbed by the fleeting appearance of an oddly conformed stranger. The next morning, the plain beneath his refuge is covered by a vast multitude of horsemen heading steadily westwards… Next time on Doings of Doyle We return to Baker Street for ‘The Adventure of the Second Stain’ (1904). You can read the story here: ACD Encyclopaedia – The Adventure of the Second Stain. Support the podcast Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
This episode, we welcome to the podcast Professor Roger Luckhurst to talk about his new edition of Round the Red Lamp (1894) for the Edinburgh University Press, and plenty of Gothic too. About Roger Luckhurst Roger Luckhurst is the Geoffrey Tillotson Chair of Nineteenth-Century Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. He is the author of ten monographs and has edited many works of classic nineteenth century Gothic, including key works by Rider Haggard, Henry James, Stevenson, Stoker and Conan Doyle. Listeners to the Doings of Doyle podcast will have heard us make reference to his Science Fiction: A Literary History (2017) The Mummy’s Curse (2012) and his excellent book Gothic: An Illustrated History which came out in 2021. He can be found on X as @TheProfRog. Visit Roger’s page at Birkbeck, University of London here. Round the Red Lamp (Edinburgh Edition of the Works of Arthur Conan Doyle, 2024) An often overlooked collection in Arthur Conan Doyle’s career, these tales actually track the vital moment in his life when he decided to shift careers from provincial medic to celebrated London author Detailed introduction, notes and scholarly apparatus Appendixes that collect extra medical tales, Conan Doyle’s early contributions to the medical press and the two one-act plays that he produced from two of the stories, including one of his greatest successes for the stage, Waterloo Introduction provides the medical context to help understand its place in Conan Doyle’s career This is a scholarly edition of Arthur Conan Doyle’s controversial collection of medical tales, first published in 1894 in the first flush of his fame. Conan Doyle had trained in medicine at Edinburgh University in the 1870s, and then spent eight years as a General Practitioner in Southsea, before deciding to become a professional author in 1890. The stories he collected in Round the Red Lamp are gathered from his medical training and incidents in his life as a provincial GP. Some of the stories are daring – dealing explicitly with child birth, sexually transmitted diseases and malpractice. Some are sentimental or comic vignettes. Some are Gothic horrors. On publication the shades of dark and light bewildered some of his readers and the medical realism outraged others. Round the Red Lamp is a vital collection in understanding Conan Doyle’s shift of profession from medic to author. (Source: Edinburgh university Press website) Purchase from the publisher here. Other works by Roger Luckhurst Gothic: an illustrated history (London, Thames and Hudson, 2021). ‘Arthur Conan Doyle and medical London: reading the topography of Round the Red Lamp’, Victoriographies: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century Writing, Vol 11 (3), 2021. The Ghost Stories of M. R. James (London, British Library Press, 2018). The Cambridge Companion to Dracula (Cambridge University Press, 2017) Science Fiction: A Literary History (London, British Library Press, 2017) The Mummy's Curse: the True History of a Dark Fantasy (Oxford University Press, 2012) Late Victorian Gothic Tales (Oxford World's Classics, 2009) Next time on Doings of Doyle We take a look at ‘The Coming of the Huns’ (1910), one of Conan Doyle’s Tales of Long Ago. You can read the story here. Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ YouTube vide created by @headlinerapp.
This episode, we discuss one of Conan Doyle’s little-known post-war stories, ‘The Nightmare Room’ from 1921. Read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Nightmare_Room Listen to an audiobook reading by Greg Wagland here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFZwsEE8ua8 The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle Synopsis The air of an ordinary if luxuriant and curiously incomplete living room hangs heavy with an atmosphere of sinister expectation. Its occupants, Lucille and Archie Mason, have reached a dangerous impasse in their society marriage. She is a famous dancer who gave up her art and career for the sake of love; he, a young and successful man of business. But there is also a mutual friend, a soldier named Jack Campbell. A source of poison, perhaps? But who then is the fourth figure watching from the shadows, watching and controlling… Next time on Doings of Doyle… We are joined by Roger Luckhurst, editor of the new Edinburgh Edition of Round the Red Lamp (1924), to delve into medical gothic... Support the podcast Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
Welcome to Episode 50! This month, we look at a deeply personal work that Conan Doyle suppressed for almost thirty years before reissuing in heavily redacted form, ‘The Surgeon of Gaster Fell’ from 1890. You can the original 1890 version here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Surgeon_of_Gaster_Fell Or listen to a Librivox recording of the 1918 version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PouWLBMO0E (starts at 3:27:50). The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle Synopsis Following a life of adventure, James Upperton, whilst still only in his late thirties, has decided to retire to a quiet and secluded corner of North West Yorkshire where he intends to pursue a course of abstruse philosophical studies. His plans and his peace are however disarranged by the arrival of a mysterious young woman and the disturbing presence near his woodland retreat of a disparate and strange male duo, the younger of whom introduces himself as the Surgeon of Gaster Fell… Next time on Doings of Doyle We jump forward to 1921 to enter ‘The Nightmare Room’… Support the podcast Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
Hello and welcome to Episode 49. This month, we look at a classic Conan Doyle short story, one the author felt was “gloomy but of [his] best” - ‘The Pot of Caviare’ from 1908. You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Pot_of_Caviare Or listen to an audio recording by Greg Wagland here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yah89KYMwr8 The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle Synopsis During the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, the small European garrison of Ichau is barely holding out against a besieging Boxer army. A relief force is expected but its progress is uncertain. Hope and fears both run high, and the defenders begin to weigh up their options: relief, death or capture by a merciless foe. Next time on Doings of Doyle We reach out fiftieth episode (good heavens) and spend it in the company of ‘The Surgeon of Gaster Fell,’ which first appeared in Chambers’ Journal in 1890, and which Conan Doyle sought to suppress in later life… Support the podcast Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
This episode, we travel to the Scottish borders at the end of the Napoleonic Wars for Conan Doyle’s 1892 novella The Great Shadow. You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Great_Shadow Listen to the podcast below or at the Podcaster of your choice. Read the show notes here. The episode will be released on our YouTube channel and available for viewing with closed captions in a day or two. Subscribe to the channel here: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle Become a Patron Visit our website to find out how to sponsor the podcast via Paypal or Patreon. Next time on Doings of Doyle… We talk to Glen and Cathy Miranker about their forthcoming facsimile edition of Conan Doyle’s notes for his 1910 speech ‘The Romance of Medicine.’ Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
This episode, we break from our usual format to take a look at the last twelve months in the Doylean universe and make some recommendations of adaptations, events, and publications you may have missed. Apologies to anyone we have left out. So much happened last year, it was hard to keep track! If you know of something we have overlooked, please give it a mention in the comments. You can read the shownotes at www.doingsofdoyle.com The episode will be released on our YouTube channel in the next few hours, with closed captions shortly after. And if you are enjoying the podcast, please leave a rating or review on your podcaster of choice, or sponsor us on PayPal or Patreon. Thank you! Next time on Doings of Doyle We step back two hundred years to the Scottish borders and the Battle of Waterloo in The Great Shadow (1892). You can read the story at the wonderful Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia. Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/