This was very entertaining and super informative. I had to dock a star for one reason - it was very repetitive in certain areas. When introducing an actor who was a speaker, I did not need to have his roles read out to me every time he spoke. Completely unnecessary and annoying. ( )

The Real Sherlock
by Lucinda Hawksley

This is a very informative and interesting book! I really didn't have much knowledge on Doyle's life except the books he wrote. This really opened my eyes to what kind of man he was. His ambitions, drives, family, how he almost died three times on a whaling ship, his physical looks, and to hear his voice!

The book describes how he got into writing, how he felt about his characters, and more. Very exciting to go behind the name and meet the man. ( )

Interesting glimpse into the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I didn't know much about him before this so this was a nice taste. It didn't go into a lot of depth, but that is to be expected for a 2 hour audiobook. ( )

Conan Doyle Bio-documentary
Review of the Audible Original audiobook (May 2019)

Usually, stories purporting to be about the 'real' Sherlock Holmes are biographies of Joseph Bell who was the main inspiration for the fictional character. The Real Sherlock is instead a biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer who created the world's most famous fictional detective.

Although this is a very short biographical documentary at two hours, it still seems very padded with material that is either not suited to an audiobook, excerpted readings of the fictional stories, and unnecessary repetitive information. Examining various artifacts such as a pen or a pipe of Conan Doyle's may be interesting in a video documentary, but leaves an audiobook listener without any point of focus. Excerpts from the Holmes and Professor Challenger stories are fine, but hardly provide much detail about the writer's own life. And introducing guest speakers such as actor Bill Paterson for the upteenth time as having played both the author and the character of Dr. Watson seems like filler. It would have been more interesting to have additional details of the writer's life instead.

The Real Sherlock was first published by Audible UK in May 2019 and it was also one of ten free Audible Original audiobooks for members in July 2020. It is available to everyone for a standard price. ( )

This is a short, lively account of the life of Arthur Conan Doyle. It's fun and, to a point, informative. However, when I realized two of the people contributing to it were Catherine Ruml Doyle and Richard John Francis Doyle, great-niece and great-nephew of Arthur Conan Doyle, two of the family members who control the estate, I knew it would include nothing critical or suggesting any faults or weaknesses at all.

Which put me in a snarkier mood while listening than I would have been otherwise.

But of course Conan Doyle gave us Sherlock Holmes, and all the entertainment that has come from that. We get an introduction to what went into creating the characters of Holmes and Watson, what led him to writing fiction at all, and bits of the novels that Conan Doyle thought were much better, and which were initially more profitable for him.

One of the things that pushed him toward writing fiction was the fact that he wasn't making much money as a doctor. This isn't the first time I've come across this fact. What I've never seen explained, or speculated about, is why an Edinburgh-trained doctor who was clearly an intelligent man, couldn't make money as a doctor. But there it is. He didn't, and as a result, we have Sherlock Holmes.

Conan Doyle was also, of course, a leading spirtualist of his day, firmly convinced that it was possible to communicate with our beloved dead. Hawksley and those whom she interviews for this talk about the strength of his belief in spiritualism, and praise him for it. Never mentioned is the fact that some of the people he put his trust in were eventually proven to be frauds. Whereas his strong friendship with Harry Houdini, who, like James Randi many years later, became a great debunker of claims of paranormal abilities, was destroyed by Conan Doyle's commitment to spiritualism and belief that Houdini himself had great paranormal powers and had become his enemy.

Despite its obvious faults and weaknesses, this is an entertaining, short listen.

I received this audiobook as part of the Audible Originals program, and am reviewing it voluntarily. ( )