On
a drive in East Sussex, Paul Ashton and his Wife decided to stop at a
car boot sale. What he found there has both shocked and delighted the
literary World. For just £2, Mr. Ashton purchased an old copy of
Practical Handbook of Bee Culture-the
Author?, none other than Sherlock Holmes!. It was thought no copies
of the Handbook had
survived, yet here over 267 pages is the diary kept by the great man,
covering events from his 1903 move to a farm near Beachy Head, in
East Sussex.
At
this time, Holmes was engaged to his former landlady Mrs. Hudson and
fulfills his promise of a retirement keeping bees. The book itself
contains exhaustive advice for the would-bee keeper (!) as well as
original and unique accounts of some of Holmes' final cases.
Adjusting remarkably to domestic life, Holmes takes to rustic life
with the passion of the city-dweller. Among the former Detective's
acquisitions is a box brownie which he uses to great effect capturing
images both charming and dramatic.
 |
| Just for fun-Holmes showing Watson his Hives (IMAGE NOT IN THE BOOK!) |
Holmes'
work also includes a litany of current events – as well as their
intrinsic value, these serve to give the book a framework and place
the events securely in their time, as they happened. In the approved
style of Forrest Gump and The Hundred Year Old Man (who
climbed out of the window and disappeared)
Holmes moves through this period meeting or renewing acquaintance
with such luminous creatures as Lenin and Debussy, to name, but two.
Old habits die hard though and from time to time Holmes engages his
legendary mind on those problems to which is is best suited-an
enquiry for a concerned American family here-a poltergeist case
there, these include two cases that set Holmes' past crashing into
his present.
The
rural idyll continues, with Holmes the bee-keeper fully immersed in
village life. A visitor!-none, but Watson and the two old friends
discuss the atrocious events known as the Whitechapel Murders. Other
cases follow- bigamy and blackmail mix with the ever-present trials
and tribulations of apiculture.
The
book blends Holmes' (fictional) cases with actual criminal scandals
of the day in a seamless fashion and as well as solving a Regal
jewellery theft with his old comrade-in-arms, Holmes finds the time
to champion the cause of Suffrage, foil Latvian Anarchists and
attempt to recover a stolen Da Vinci. Ill-health then causes Holmes
to break off his writing-or so we are told. The
book itself concludes with an intriguing yet informative end-note
from Mr.Ashton. For the first
time, Ashton reveals that
Sherlock Holmes became a Secret Agent, including a stint working on
vital matters to foil the Germans at the outset of the Great War.
So,
does Practical Handbook of Bee Culture
warrant a place on your shelf?. Most assuredly!; it is a gem, a weave
of fact and fiction that sets Holmes' later years down for posterity
in a unique and rather charming way. As a Sussex resident myself, I
was delighted with the Author's knowledge of the area and the whole
thing is such an unexpected pleasure I have no hesitation in
recommending this fine book to you all.
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