About This Book

by Roger Johnson

“This bids fair to be the merriest of Christmases.”

– The Adventure of the Stone of Scone

Of course, when it comes to Sherlock Holmes, there is only one Christmas story.

Isn’t there?

Well, it’s true in a way. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote only one Holmes story set at Christmas time, so “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” is the only Canonical example. Christopher Morley’s description of it as “a Christmas story without slush” is perceptive and understandably famous, though I can’t agree with his assertion that “as a story ‘The Blue Carbuncle’ is a far better work of art than the immortal Christmas Carol.” Not that I rank Conan Doyle’s tale lower than Dickens’s, but it does have one serious flaw.

We may reasonably assume, I think, that Holmes intends Mr. and Mrs. Peterson to be the beneficiaries of the Countess of Morcar’s £1,000 reward for recovering the celebrated jewel, which is only right. Nevertheless, he appears blithely optimistic in thinking that the case against the unfortunate John Horner would necessarily “collapse” if James Ryder didn’t testify against him. I find myself wondering whether, after all, the circumstantial evidence would have been strong enough to secure a conviction.

In any case, the number of suspects seems to have been limited. If he did decline to appear against Horner, then Ryder himself would surely be the obvious suspect. How would he explain his volte face, especially as his original story had been backed up by her ladyship’s maid, Catherine Cusack?

As you’ll have realised, my affection for “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” is not blind, but I love it anyway, and so do innumerable others - most obviously the many who have decided that one Christmas story is not enough for the Holmes devotee.

Before his creator’s death in 1930, nearly all the unofficial fiction about the great detective was humorous or satirical. The earliest volume to contain a substantial amount of pastiche along with the parody was Ellery Queen’s ill-fated anthology The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1944. Among the many delights in that rare collection is a short play called “Christmas Eve”, written by the great Holmesian scholar S.C. Roberts. More was to follow. Personal favourites include “The Adventure of the Christmas Visitor” by Denis O Smith, “The Christmas Client” by Edward D Hoch, Holmes in Time for Christmas by Ross K. Foad, “Sherlock Holmes and the Ghost of Christmas Past” by David Stuart Davies . . . but there are many more.

Mention of “Christmas Eve” reminds me that the combination of Holmes and Yuletide remains irresistible to dramatists. “The Blue Carbuncle” has been adapted many times, of course, for stage, screen and radio. I’m hoping that the popular American play Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Goose will make it across the Atlantic before long.

The Granada Television film with Jeremy Brett and David Burke is excellent, and so is the early BBC production with Peter Cushing and Nigel Stock. Mention of Nigel Stock reminds me that in 1970 he played Watson to Robert Hardy’s Holmes in an admirable audio dramatisation. The story always seems to work well in sound alone, whether the protagonists are portrayed by Carleton Hobbs and Norman Shelley, John Patrick Lowrie and Lawrence Albert, or - and you can read Bert Coules’ superb script in this very book - Clive Merrison and Michael Williams.

Also on radio, one of the most bizarrely entertaining of the classic 1940’s series starring Messrs Rathbone and Bruce is “The Night Before Christmas”, in which Holmes and Watson encounter a member of the Moriarty gang whose distinctive feature inspired his nickname, Lou the Lisper. Even more distinctive to the British listener is his strong Californian accent, but that seems to pass unnoticed by the denizens of Victorian London!

I’m taking up too much of your time, so I’ll just mention another play that I hope one day to see: John Longenbaugh’s Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol, an ingenious amalgam of Conan Doyle and Dickens which has proved popular in America and did tour England last year - but without coming anywhere near me, alas.

Ah! There is one other thing. If you’re wondering about the story that gives this little homily its title, then you should acquaint yourself with the exploits of the Master’s greatest protégé, Mr. Solar Pons of Praed Street, as chronicled by August Derleth. As far as Christmas stories are concerned, even better that “The Adventure of the Stone of Scone” is “The Adventure of the Unique Dickensians”. If you’ll forgive the pun, it’s a cracker!

That’s something to look out for. Meanwhile, in the pages of this book is a literary feast to keep you satisfied during these long winter evenings!

Roger Johnson, BSI

Editor, The Sherlock Holmes Journal

July 2016