Review: Close To Holmes by Alistair Duncan

Review of Close To Holmes: A Look at the Connections Between Historical London, Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2009) Alistair Duncan [MX Publishing]

If Alistair Duncan’s first book Eliminate the Impossible is Dakin-lite, then Close To Holmes might be considered Harrison-lite; that is Mr. Duncan, in the spirit of Michael Harrison’s The London of Sherlock Holmes, passionately argues for and maps out many of those locales familiar to students of The Canon. Attempts at Holmesian cartography, like Holmesian chronology, can come off either dry and pedantic or act as an excellent vehicle for delving into the delicious minutia of Sherlock Holmes’ world. Luckily for us, Duncan succeeds with the latter: Close To Holmes is a delightfully passionate exploration of key Holmesian locations - be they train stations, buildings, neighborhoods or streets - written from a sincerely personal perspective that transforms brick and mortar London into an expressively vibrant color palette used to paint Holmes and Watson into existence .

[My only complaint about this book: why is Watson taller than Holmes on the cover? - Answer: that’s a picture of Sherlock and ACD, not Watson. UPDATED.]

Going by the subtitle of this book alone, ”A Look at the Connections Between Historical London, Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle”, one might make the mistake of imagining a stuffy, overly analytical dissertation overflowing with ‘proofs’ using copious textual evidence (cross referenced with old city maps, encyclopedias and Bradshaws of course) for where such-and-such place actually was, e.g. The Alpha Inn is de jure The Museum Tavern. Instead Duncan literally invites us to look at a building, a city block or an area and imagine, using a few key reference points, it’s relationship to a place-name in the Canon (or on a few occasions it’s relationship to the life of ACD).

Duncan’s ‘look’ approach liberates the reader from some of the more intractable geo-spatial Canonical conundrums (e.g. ‘the actual location 221B Baker Street’ - the sine qua non of Sherlockian conundrums) allowing for a simple appreciation of the ‘essence’ of a place (e.g. I can’t point to 221B, but it certainly feels like Holmes and Watson once lived around here….). Whether you are a seasoned Sherlockian scholar or a novice looking for an ‘in’ to the ‘wheres’ of Holmes & Watson’s travels, this subjective, forest-for-the-trees, approach is a refreshing invitation to re-imagine aspects of the adventures.

Interestingly, a major (stylistic) difference between Harrison’s books (e.g, the brilliant and essential In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes) and Duncan’s Close to Holmes is in their individual perceptions of exactly how much London has changed: Harrison obsesses (laments) over every torn down building where as Duncan celebrates the ‘spirit’ of a place, showing the reader the essence of a location, whether the physical building is still there or not. To put it more succinctly, Harrison offers a dose of extreme pessimism where as Duncan advocates a sort of pragmatic optimism in regards to the (continued) existence of Canonical locations. Duncan’s introduction says it best: “One of the great aspects of the Sherlock Holmes stories is that he operated in a world that still, to a certain extent, exists….it is very much possible to walk those streets and imagine what it might have been like to have walked them at the end of nineteenth century.” (p. vii)

Bacon Traveler's Pocket Map of London, England - 1890

[Bacon Traveler’s Pocket Map of London, England - c. 1890.]

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    Hmmm, I missed this first time around, reblogging!
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    A great review by our friend over at Always1895!
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