“When we consider that Mr. Sherlock Holmes has practiced his art tirelessly for twenty-three years, and that during seventeen of those years I have been given the privilege of collaborating with him and keeping a record of his affairs, it will be clear that I have a wealth of material at my disposal. The difficulty has always been not to find, but to choose. A long row of notebooks for each year fills a long shelf, many boxes are filled with documents - a rich career for a researcher not only of crime, but also of the social and political scandals of the late Victorian era...”