Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle examines the tension between the creator of Sherlock Holmes and the author’s later convictions about spiritualism and fairies. Dr Andrew Norman considers how a writer associated with logic and deduction came to publicly defend beliefs that many readers regarded as irrational.

The book places these convictions within Doyle’s wider life and career, recalling his work as a doctor, sportsman, historical novelist and campaigner for the oppressed. It draws on medical records and Doyle’s own writings to offer a biographical account centred on the development of his beliefs. The result is a study of the man behind Sherlock Holmes, including the striking shift from the celebrated detective’s rationalism to Doyle’s advocacy of spiritualist claims.