Last night I watched Killing Sherlock, Lucy Worsley on the Case of Conan Doyle. I’ve written about my childhood reading before. The Jennings books by Anthony Buckeridge led me to read the Sherlock Holmes books. I recall Jennings, and his boarding school pal Darbishire, being introduced to Sherlock Holmes by their housemaster, as a more intellectually stimulating alternative to the gangster books they were reading.
Conan Doyle’s killing off of his most famous creation at the Reichenbach Falls, and his later reincarnation are well known. Conan Doyle became interested in Dartmoor as a setting, and The Hound of the Baskervilles took shape. Apparently his publisher, who must have been delighted at the reappearance of Sherlock Holmes, was equally delighted with the gothic atmosphere of the book, saying that gothic novels were very much in fashion.
I posted a while ago about a CWA event titled Publishing Revolution: The New Hybrid Author. In it I recall JD Kirk describing how when he pitched his next novel to his publisher, the publisher said something like “can you fit some unicorns in? Unicorns are very popular at the moment.” I suppose its not unreasonable that publishers should be interested in which sort of books are in fashion. I daresay that many authors are also happy to jump on the passing bandwagon. Personally, it’s not for me.
I rather fell into the genre of historical crime fiction via the discovery of Sir Anthony Standen, my 10th great-grandfather’s elder brother, and Elizabethan spy. Now that I’m here, I love it. Some readers love my books and others don’t. That’s fair, I have my own tastes in books too. I think an author has to write what he or she wants to write, rather than what’s in fashion. Fashions change but readers still love Sherlock Holmes. I have further episodes of Killing Sherlock to watch, but at the moment I can’t empathise with Conan Doyle’s desire to be rid of his most famous creation. Anyway, I don’t believe in unicorns.