Sherlock : the facts and fiction behind the world's greatest detective / Martin Fido.

Includes index.

A comprehensive and revealing book explores the fictional life of Sherlock Holmes and that of his real life creator, Arthur Conan Doyle. This book examines the stories and exposes the myths and reality of the era in which Conan Doyle's mysteries were published, which saw the rise of Scotland Yard as a legendary organisation for criminal detection and huge advances in forensic medicine, the science of deduction and criminal analysis. Sherlock Holmes' popularity has never waned, and his silhouette with the deerstalker hat and pipe are recognisable over the world. To many, he is an eccentric, intellectual detective; but he had a far darker, more enigmatic side to his character -- complex, solitary and prone to narcotic addition. There have been countless cinema, television and stage adaptations of the stories.