ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FIRST AND FOREMOST MY THANKS must go to my editor at Atlantic, Angus MacKinnon, who had the original idea for this book and who approached me to see if I would be interested in writing it. His suggestion launched me on a very enjoyable investigation into the detective's life and career. Over the last two years, friends and family have been very tolerant of my growing obsession with Holmes and many have been kind enough to offer their own ideas and thoughts on the great man. Travis Elborough drew my attention to several books and newspaper articles about Holmes that I had not seen and introduced me to a study of Moriarty that had escaped my notice. Hugh Pemberton was one of the first people to provide a sympathetic audience for my thoughts about Holmes's role in the events of late Victorian England and his enthusiastic response was much appreciated. Allan Dodd bought me drinks at the Sherlock Holmes pub in central London and listened patiently as I described, in unnecessarily lengthy detail, my difficulties in sorting fact from legend in Holmes's life. Paul Skinner sent me information about Charles Augustus Howell which I would not otherwise have seen. Susan Osborne, Dawn Pomroy, Richard Shephard, Andrew Holgate, Gordon Kerr and Kathy Crocker have all shown a consistent interest in the project and have, possibly without realizing it, provided me with encouragement to finish it.
At Atlantic, Bonnie Chiang, Clara Farmer and Toby Mundy have all been extraordinarily encouraging and supportive and I could not have wished for a better publisher. My thanks also go to Celia Levett whose sympathetic copy-editing has added much to the text and to Mike Levett whose indexing skills are much appreciated.
Back in the 1960s my parents owned Penguin editions of several of the volumes of Holmes short stories and it was through these books that I was first introduced to the delights of Dr Watson's narratives. I would like to thank my parents for this introduction and also for the support they provided, forty years later, during the writing of this book. My greatest thanks go to my partner, Eve Gorton, who has spent more time in the company of Sherlock Holmes than she ever expected that she would. She has often been a greater believer in this book than its author and it is dedicated to her.
