Fans of Sherlock Holmes, Victorian England, and history in general will all find interesting tidbits to carry away.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle references many everyday Victorian activities and aspects that are lost on the twenty-first century reader. These short essays provide modern readers a better understanding of Victorian England and greater insight into the world of Sherlock Holmes. His cases take on richer meaning when the reader grasps the subtleties of such details as the blue ribbon mentioned in The Adventure of the Cardboard Box, the doss houses Shinwell Johnson knew about, or how one contracted brain fever.

Originally published in Sherlockian newsletters across the world, these short essays carry the reader back to London, 1895 and the world of the most famous consulting detective. Topics covered include:

Horse racing The Victorian Wedding Boxing The Temperance Movement Fencing London Smog Brain Fever Circuses The Port of Dundee Doss Houses Vampires Bradshaw’s Companion Bicycles and the New Woman Clergymen Public Houses Microscopes and Magnifying Glasses Governesses Ciphers and Codes Eton Cambridge and Oxford The Art of Disguise Typewriters Brief History of Tea

Return, once again, to Victorian England and the residents of 221B Baker Street.

We have…always found [Dr. Sherwood-Fabre’s] essays to be both entertaining and informative as well as very well researched.

• Joel Senter, editor, The Sherlockian E-Times