'I think I’ve written more Sherlock Holmes than even Conan Doyle': the ongoing fight to reimagine Holmes

Arthur Conan Doyle's master detective has been endlessly rewritten. But nearly a century after the author's death, how new writers portray him remains contested

The first ever mention of Sherlock Holmes came in A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton's Christmas Annual of 1887. Dr Watson is looking for lodgings, and meets an old acquaintance who knows of someone he could share with, but does not recommend.

Young Stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wine-glass. You don't know Sherlock Holmes yet,' he said; perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion.'