I have no idea how I let myself get so long in the tooth before finally settling down and reading this collection. Suffice to say I am glad I finally came to my senses. Although he is now referred to as "Conan Doyle", the origin of this compound surname (if that is how he meant it to be understood) is uncertain. His baptism record in the registry of St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh gives 'Arthur Ignatius Conan' as his Christian name, and simply 'Doyle' as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather.

Starring one of radio's great double acts, Clive Merrison and Michael Williams, as Holmes and Watson, and with guest stars including Brian Blessed, Judi Dench, Maurice Denham, Andrew Sachs, Peter Davison, Robert Glenister and Harriet Walter, this definitive collection contains over 48 hours of enthralling listening. My overall rating is 4.5 stars for the entire bind up. I do list each story and my rating individually, as well as my average rating for each collection.*When Conan Doyle started writing about the private detective, Holmes was a self-proclaimed anomaly, something that didn’t really exist in our world or at any point in history. For me the stories and novels are well-written. They appealed to my younger self. I was fascinated with Holmes ability to read people. And I wanted that skill-set. I decided early on that was going to be an important “ability” for me to have as a life skill. Focus on the small details. Look directly at people. Listen to them. Hear what they are not saying. I was recently asked by my GR friend Colin, “what novel had the most impact on you in your teens/early twenties?”

I proceeded to read all of the unadapted stories and did not remember a one of them and found some of them quite terrible. I can say, unreservedly, nothing was lost in not adapting them. Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. Holmes was still, as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in following out those clues and clearing up those mysteries which had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. I’ve read the Holmes stories many times over the years and watched all the Jeremy Brett adaptations several times, as well. Unfortunately because of Brett’s ill health, he was less and less present in the last adaptations and his death prevented him from finishing the Holmes canonSir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born the third of ten siblings on 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, a talented illustrator, was born in England of Irish descent, and his mother, born Mary Foley, was Irish. They were married in 1855. I became curious which of the Holmes stories did not get adapted and found a list at the bottom of the Wikipedia entry below.

Barely glancing up from his gruesome task, he told me that it was. "You see, Watson," he continued, "there is matter that I believe may soon become illuminated not only to you but the whole of London society." We must begin in Baker Street; and best of all, if possible, let it be a stormy winter morning when Holmes routs Watson out of bed in haste. The doctor wakes to see that tall, ascetic figure by the bedside with a candle. "Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot!" (Christopher Morley)His last bow : The adventure of Wisteria Lodge : The singular experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles ; The tiger of San Pedro ; The adventure of the cardboard box ; The adventure of the red circle ; The adventure of the Bruce-Partington plans ; The adventure of the dying detective ; The disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax ; The adventure of the devil's foot ; His last bow --

At the age of nine Conan Doyle was sent to the Roman Catholic Jesuit preparatory school, Hodder Place, Stonyhurst. He then went on to Stonyhurst College, leaving in 1875. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.I was also fascinated by people. And mostly people who did bad things to other people. I never understood why humanity was so cruel to each other. I wanted to learn. I wanted to fix them, I guess. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in a classy classic manner and even if his settings were not familiar to me as a Filipino, I appreciated his stories because of the universal messages in them: love of a husband to a wife, a son to a father, a father to his child, etc; the evil in greed especially when it comes to riches and money; that men can be truly friends without homosexuality getting in-between; that we have to respect the people we work with; always be wary of the people around you; and that, if used in moderation, cocaine and morphine can actually make you sharper. I cringed while typing the last one. Although Doyle had written other adventure series, Professor Challenger and Brigadier Gerard, he considered his true calling to be an author of Medieval Romances, with knights and so forth. I read some of them and they are quite wordy and pretty bad. The short story was Doyle’s true métier. And I say, without hesitation, if not for Holmes, Doyle would now be forgotten.