`Fascinating ... A stimulating contribution to our never-ending fascination with Holmes himself, and, even more perhaps, his genial creator` Sunday TimesA medical student at the University of Edinburgh, Arthur Conan Doyle studied under the vigilant eye of Dr Joseph Bell. He observed as Dr Bell identified a patient`s occupation, hometown and ailments from the smallest details of dress, gait and speech. Although Doyle was training to be a surgeon, he was cultivating essential knowledge that would help him to define the art of the detective novel. From Doyle`s early days surrounded by poverty and violence, through to his first days as a surgeon, Michael Sims traces the circuitous yet inevitable development of Arthur Conan Doyle as the father of the modern mystery. The incomparable Sherlock Holmes emerges as a product of Doyle`s varied lessons in the classroom and professional life.