LONDON (dpa) – Sherlock Holmes is alive and well. Each month the famous fictional detective receives 30 to 40 letters, which are answered by his secretary, Gug Kyriacou.
Mr. Kyriacou works at the Abbey National bank, Baker Street 215, in London – the same spot as where Sherlock Holmes once had his office at the fictional address 221b.
Exactly 100 years since the publication of the most famous Holmes case of all, “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, the man with the trademark checkered cap to this day is regularly being asked for help.
“People from all over the world write to him, from the United States, from Japan, from India and Germany,” says Kyriacou, who then sadly adds that he must disappoint them:
“Mr. Holmes doesn’t take on any new cases. He’s retired.”
Holmes’ keen sense of crime-solving deductive logic appears to be more in demand than ever before. Whether it has to do with a runaway household pet, interpretation of a dream or getting to the bottom of some dark family secret, people want his expertise.
But the detective is not only being asked for favours.
“Dear Mr. Holmes, I’m very worried about your safety, as I have seen Professor Moriarty on my 154 bus which I take to school. He is in disguise as an old pensioner,” wrote 12-year-old Ronan Brennon, referring to the detective’s arch-enemy.
But Holmes – with Kyriacou’s help – was able to reasure the youngster: “I am sure the man you have seen on the 154 bus is Prof. Moriarty’s son who looks very much like his father but lacks the Professor’s craftiness and brains.”
Mercy Donkor from near the northern German city of Luebeck wants to know whether Holmes ever got married. Wugi, from China, got straight to the point: “I hope you live happily.”
Brandon Sellers, from Miami, assured him: “I want you to know that I am at your service. Any time you need help solving some of the cases which are connected with the United States I will be there for you, especially if the cases involve dinosaurs and fish as these subjects are my specialty.”
Even the fiscal authorities have written Sherlock Holmes, trying to get more information about his wealth – no doubt hoping to impose some taxes.
“Holmes is very much alive,” confirms Catherine Cooke, trustee of the Sherlock Holmes Library not far from Baker Street. She is also an active member of the Sherlock Holmes Society in London which this year is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
She reports that even in such countries as France, Spain and Italy, where the storybook detective previously had not been so well known, there have been a number of Sherlock Holmes clubs set up recently. Mrs. Cooke, a very serious and distinguished-looking lady, has a theory why.
“The Holmes stories have always been something for nostalgics,” she says. “They were already nostalgic in the 1890s because he isn’t actually someone from the 1890s but from the 1880s.”
Even though London back then already had electric street lighting, Holmes and his faithful assistant Dr. Watson were always seen going down foggy streets beneath the gas lanterns. Nor did they ever take the underground or drive in a car, but were, as late as the 1920s, still travelling by horse-drawn coach and steam railway.
“People were afraid at that time. There was a fear of technology, people were looking for a fixpoint in a changing age,” Cooke says. “And now we are there again – look at the globalisation, look at the Internet.”
For many people, Sherlock Holmes is tantamount to an alternate religion.
“Holmes is an all-powerful being. He always has the right answer,” Cooke says. “He even dies and is resurrected.”
This is all thanks to his fans, who implored author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) to come up with new adventures even after the book in which the writer had sent the detective on to the next world in the 1893 story “The Final Problem”.
The reason why Doyle tried to finish Holmes off was that in fact he was increasingly tired of the detective. The writer wanted to get on to writing more serious works of fiction.
“If he had known that in 2001 we would only know him for his Holmes, that would have come as a shock to him,” Cooke said. In all, Doyle wrote 60 stories in which Sherlock Holmes appeared, the works published in the 40-year span of 1887-1927.
