What is Conan Doyle’s link with Portsmouth?
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) is the most important author to have worked in Portsmouth. He lived here between 1882 and 1890, while attempting to establish himself as a doctor. It was because he lacked patients that he turned to literature to help earn a living. • His detective hero, Sherlock Holmes, was conceived during Doyle’s time in Portsmouth and he wrote the first two Holmes novels, A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four, while he lived in the city. • Doyle was also a significant author of historical novels, he wrote Micah Clarke while in the city and researched and drafted The White Company, his first novel about the Hundred Years’ War.
