Baker

Off to a meeting in London this morning, and rather than my normal eastbound journey from St Pancras on the Circle Line, I headed west for three stops, and alighted at Baker Street. With a few minutes to spare before my meeting, I wandered along Baker Street in search of a blue plaque.

In The House of Silk, the new Holmes novel by Anthony Horowitz, the author, in the voice of Dr Watson, explains why the book has been published so long after the other stories of the great detective. The reason is that Watson had not chronicled this particular adventure until towards the end of his life (after Holmes' death) and due to its highly sensitive nature, had given orders that the manuscript was to be sealed away for 100 years, hence its recent publication.

Considering timelines, and sequences of events, it's interesting that Holmes and Watson are always travelling around London in horse-drawn cabs. As Kate told us, Baker Street was the first of the London Underground stations to be opened, in 1863, and so the Underground would have been available as a mode of transport to Sherlock. I wonder if ACD ever sent him travelling on the tube!

Having thoroughly enjoyed The House of Silk, maybe the time has come to revisit some of the originals.