by David West | Nov 20, 2024 | News
On the 20th November 1886 Arthur Conan Doyle sold A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes Story to the publisher Ward and Lock for £25. Doyle’s inspiration for the character of Sherlock Holmes came largely from his former university professor, Dr. Joseph Bell, a...
by David West | Nov 19, 2024 | News
On the 19th November 1850 Tennyson became Poet Laureate. I’ve posted about Gutenberg and his printing press, and also William Caxton, but presses need writers as much as writers need presses. One of my favourite poets is Tennyson. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) was...
by David West | Nov 18, 2024 | News
I posted a few days ago about Gutenberg and the invention of the printing press. Well, on the 18th of November 1477 William Caxton printed the first English dated printed book, “Dictes & Sayengis of the Phylosophers” in London. William Caxton (c. 1422–1491)...
by David West | Nov 17, 2024 | News
On the 17th of November 1558 Elizabeth became England’s queen, aged 25, following the death of her half-sister Queen Mary I. My 10th great-grandfather Edmund Standen would have been nine at the time, and his elder brother Anthony just a few years older. Elizabeth came...
by David West | Nov 16, 2024 | News
Today I had the horrible feeling that in The Favourite Murder, my work in progress and the fifth book of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, I might have broken one of Ronald Knox’s famous Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction. I checked them, and I’m happy to say...
