A Chronology Of The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle - A Detailed Account Of The Life And Times Of The Creator Of Sherlock Holmes [Paperback]

Nine years ago, Brian Pugh, Curator of the Conan Doyle (Browborough) Establishment, self-published a useful list of the dates in Arthur Conan Doyle s life. The latest, professionally published version runs to more than 200 A4 pages, and includes twelve pages of significant dates between Conan Doyle s death in 1930 and the memorial service for his daughter Dame Jean in 1998, as well as lists of his residences, of his family s burial sites, and of relevant plaques and statues, and a chronological list of his writings. It s not a book to read from cover to cover, but for many of us it will quickly become and essential part of our reference libraries. (I can add just one event on the Chronology. On 22nd May 1994, as well as the plaque at 2 Upper Wimpole Street, Dame Jean unveiled Jean Upton s portrait of Sir Arthur at the Sherlock Holmes pub in London). --Sherlock Holmes Society of London Journal - Vol 29, No.2, Summer 2009

There can be little doubt that this book from Brian Pugh is one of the most important books on Conan Doyle to have come out since Andrew Lycett s biography and A life in letters by Lellenberg et al. Unlike these two titles Brian s book is one that you will dip into to check your facts rather than one you can pick up and read from cover to cover. As such it is a truly indispensable guide for the researcher and has already aided me in my present researches. Where there are areas of disagreement ,especially regarding dates, all views and sources are shown. This is one of the book s strongest points. Brian does not seek to impose his personal opinion on the reader by choosing one source over another. To sum up. If you need a volume in which you can easily look up a period in Conan Doyle s life you can do no better than to buy this book. --Alistair Duncan

Thank you for the copy of the new edition of the ACD Chronology. As I believe I ve mentioned before, it s a resource that I often use or recommend to others. It s nice to see such useful information so attractively presented. --Arthur Conan Doyle Collection Toronto Public Library, Peggy Perdue

A comprehensive chronology of the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The first section contains a detailed chronology of the major and minor events in the life of Sir Arthur and his family from 1794 to 1930. This is followed by a section on events from 1930 to 1993, the residences of Conan Doyle and his family, where are they buried, locations of plaques and statues, a list of biographies and semi-biographical works, a bibliography, a selective list of miscellaneous writings, works consulted and about the chronologist. Finally, there are a number of well-reproduced photographs of ACD his family at various times of his life, some have not appeared in print before. This publication proves that there is more to Arthur Conan Doyle than just Sherlock Holmes.

Brian W. Pugh lives in Lewes, East Sussex not far from the town of Crowborough (the home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1907-1930). He was born in 1944 and has lived in Lewes all of his life, he is semi-retired after being made redundant from British Gas after 30 years, where he was employed as a Supervisor and Assessor. He first became interested in Sherlock Holmes in 1958 when he received his first Holmes book The Complete Sherlock Holmes Short Stories; this was followed in 1960 with The Sherlock Holmes Long Stories, both are still in his collection. His interest in Holmes was reawakened with the Jeremy Brett series on television and he joined The Franco-Midland Hardware Company and The Sherlock Holmes Society of London. On becoming increasingly interested in Conan Doyle he joined The Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment and The Arthur Conan Doyle Society. He is a member of many of other Holmesian groups including The Poor Folk on the Moors, The Sydney Passengers in Australia, plus many more. Brian is The Curator of The Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment, which is a society dedicated to Arthur Conan Doyle; he is also responsible for maintaining the modest ACD collection that The Establishment holds of Conan Doyle photographs and ephemera. He also assists in research about ACD, his life, his family and his writings etc., and assists the media and general enquiries for research about Conan Doyle. The Establishment was instrumental in fund raising and arranging the erection of the Conan Doyle statue in Crowborough.