Doyle Arthur Conan - Arthur Conan Doyle: the man behind Sherlock Holmes

I t is the year 1900 and Arthur Conan Doyle, now aged forty-one, is at the height of his powers. A qualified doctor who has travelled widely; a keen and able sportsman who once bowled out the legendary Dr W.G. Grace in a cricket match (a favour which the great cricketer was quick to return!); a chronicler of the South African War (which he witnessed at first hand); a writer of historical novels and patriotic pamphlets, and a champion of the oppressed and the underdog. Most of all, however, he is known for being the creator of that honourable, brave, scientific, and eminently sensible master detective Sherlock Holmes.

Every new Holmes story is greeted with great anticipation and confidence in the knowledge that however complex the crime, the eminently intelligent and logical Holmes will solve it. It therefore comes as a great surprise to his readers, when in the year 1916, the author, now Sir Arthur (he was knighted in 1902), declares that he believes in spiritualism. How can the creator of the inexorably logical Sherlock Holmes behave like this? It simply does not add up. And when, in 1922, Doyle publishes a book in which he professes to believe in fairies, the vast majority of his devotees are, frankly, nonplussed. For many, this was too much. Suddenly the iconic figure of Doyle instead becomes a figure of fun; a subject of ridicule, mirth, and derision.

Having an enquiring mind like Doyle, I was prompted to ask what he was seeking when he renounced his former Roman Catholic religion and became a spiritualist. Was there something lacking in his life which led him into an investigation of the paranormal? As for believing in fairies, this seemed altogether too bizarre. So how could one account for it?

As I commenced my research my first instinct was to empathise with Doyle, not for his strange beliefs, but for the reason that like him I am a former medical practitioner who became a writer (in my case, following a spinal injury). What if he had walked into my former surgery in Poole, Dorset (his being in Southsea, Hampshire) one day as a patient, and told me his story? Perhaps, the first thing I should have asked him, discreetly of course, would have been if there were any other members of the Doyle family who had had similar experiences? Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, it is impossible for me to question Doyle himself.

Nonetheless, when I came to investigate Doyles psyche using his own writings (both factual and fictional) as my predominant source, I found the journey just as exciting as any of the cases embarked upon by the great Sherlock Holmes, and all the more extraordinary because this was real life! Like Holmes, I was now looking for clues which I largely found subtly concealed in Doyles own writings.

The trail led to Scotland, to the remote hamlet of Blairerno near the east coast; to Montrose; to Edinburgh; and to Dumfries. In all of these places Doyles father, Charles Altamont, had been forcibly incarcerated in various institutions for both his own safety and for that of others. Could it be that Charles held the key to the unanswered questions about his son?

My investigations led me to conclude that Doyles father had suffered not only from alcoholism and epilepsy, as has previously been described, but more importantly from a serious mental illness. Not only that, but this illness was itself a hereditable disease, in other words, one which Charles may have handed down to his son via the genes. Suddenly I realised that I now had an opportunity to solve what I consider to be the ultimate mystery, that of the bizarre and extraordinary nature of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself!