Dr. Watson was the chronicler of every Sherlock Holmes adventure published in The Strand magazine between 1887 and 1927. He reported them with honesty in the bluff, army-style of a military doctor, so frank in their account of human behaviour that they were too risque for the morals of Victorian England. George Newnes, the editor, purged each story before its publication. Newnes also replaced Watson’s jocular illustrations with Sidney Paget’s more innocuous portrayals.

Newnes deleted everybody’s backgrounds but in these accounts Watson reveals Holmes’s family: his father, Professor Julian Cornelius Bortzoy Holmes; his wife, Wendy; his sister, Rachel, as well as Mycroft. Watson also exposes Mrs. Hudson’s property empire and he tells us how Professor Moriarty became the Napoleon of crime. Some of this new material is shocking, even by today’s standards!

Book 3 synopsis, The formidable Miss Mary Sutherland consults Sherlock Holmes about a mysterious and elusive suitor. She tells her story from Watson’s ancient Egyptian chair, the Mummy Couch, but he is more worried about her hefty derriere breaking the antique heirloom than her missing lover. Later on, Watson is introduced to Holmes’s parents for the first time and discovers he has an amorous admirer in Sherlock and Mycroft’s sister, Rachel.