Elementary

The Arthur of Arthur & George is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Barnes paints a wonderfully penetrating yet sympathetic portrait. As I read I keep thinking back to how much I enjoyed the Holmes stories as a kid, and also, perhaps surprisingly, how much they spooked me. I found quite a few of them more frightening than the kind of horror stories I was exposed to as a youngster, but I'd be hard-pressed to explain why this was.

Their unnerving quality was captured in one or two of the Basil Rathbone movies though. Gosh, it's been years since I've seen one. The later ones in the series descend into caricature - but it's a comfortably comforting rather jolly sort of caricature.

I also loved Doyle's Brigadier Gerard tales. You don't hear about them these days but they were so often beautifully wrought pieces. In some ways the good brigadier is as archetypal as Holmes, and much more likable. For some reason I always felt very grown-up reading them.

The libraries I visited around ten years old had plenty of Sir Arthur on their shelves. I don't expect you'd see that nowadays - more's the pity.