Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock and a Real Mystery

Today, let’s take a look at one of the most popular British authors of all time – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. If anyone out there is thinking that you don’t recognise the name, I guarantee you will know the name of the best loved of all his characters – Sherlock Holmes. I was right wasn’t I? Everyone knows Sherlock Holmes, and has either read the books or watched the TV series or films. However, there is far more to this story than just one character!

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859 – 1930) was born in Scotland, to parents of Irish descent. Despite his father’s alcoholism and psychiatric illness, Arthur, with financial help from his uncles, received a good education and attended Edinburgh University from 1886 to 1871. Here he studied medicine, to follow his chosen career as a doctor. Whilst he was studying he began writing short stories and during this time he had both his first work of fiction and of non-fiction published.

Indeed, this is the time when we first met Watson and Sherlock Holmes! Although these were the characters that catapulted him to fame, Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to be seen as a serious writer and is believed to have preferred some of his other writings, including serious historical novels, plays and poems.

As well as writing, Arthur continued with his studies and worked as a ship’s surgeon before opening his own medical practice. Then in 1890 he went to Vienna to study ophthalmology (a science that looks at the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye). During this period he also married, became a father and enjoyed a sporting career, playing football, cricket and golf. However, after a serious bout of influenza he decided that trying to combine a medical and writing career was too much and decided to abandon his medical career to concentrate in his writing.

In the story “The Final Problem” published 1893 Arthur had decided to kill off the character of Sherlock Homes and both Holmes and Professor Moriarty plunged to their deaths at the Reichenbach falls. This caused a public outcry, and twenty thousand readers cancelled their subscription to the Strand magazine that printed the stories. However, ten years later he wrote another Holmes story “The Adventure of the Empty House” in which he explained that only Moriarty had fallen but Holmes had decided to allow others to believe he had died to escape his enemies! Holmes later featured in many more stories and novels.

Arthur Conan Doyle continued to lead busy life writing, volunteering as an army doctor in the Boer War (1899 – 1902) and remarrying after the death of his first wife. Both he and his second wife had an interest in spiritualism, possibly strengthened after the death of his eldest son from injuries sustained during the First World War. He also stood twice for Parliament, although he was never elected as an MP, and used his money and influence to fight miscarriages of justice in the British Courts.

However, the bit of his story that I find most interesting is his possible involvement in the Piltdown man hoax of 1912. I have to emphasise “possible” as nothing has been proved! In 1912 bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown human. They were said to have been found in a gravel pit in Piltdown, East Sussex, England. It wasn’t until 1953 that it was proved to be a forgery and that the lower jaw of an orang-utan had been deliberately mixed with a modern human skull. Prior to this it was believed by many scientists to be the evolutionary “missing link” between apes and humans. This hoax is unusual for a couple of reasons. Firstly as it deals with the nature of evolution, and also as it was not proved to be a hoax for forty years! So where does our author fit into all this? Well, it has been suggested that Arthur Conan Doyle was the perpetrator of this hoax and that his novel “The Lost World” published 1912 holds many encrypted clues regarding his involvement. Is this true? I have no idea; maybe you need to try and read the evidence and make up your own mind!

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George Orwell: Sci-Fi or Seer?

One of the most influential British authors of the 20^th Century has to be Eric Arthur Blair -better known by his penname “George Orwell”. Blair worked as both a journalist and novelist, and his whole writing career is characterised by one thing, his concern for social justice and the plight of the working class. Blair’s work is generally well known and celebrated but the most famous of his novels include Animal Farm, a particular favourite of mine, and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Born in India in 1903, Blair was educated in Britain before joining the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, where he was stationed from 1922 – 1927. Following this he resigned from the police to concentrate on a writing career. He later drew on his experiences in Burma for his novel Burmese Days (1934) and the essays “A Hanging” (1931) and “Shooting an Elephant” (1936).

Back in Britain Blair began his research into the plight of the working class, regularly visiting areas of extreme poverty; he would dress and behave as a down and out to gain  a true experience of the world that so many inhabited. He also spent some time in Paris where he undertook menial jobs, to gain more experience of the conditions many were forced to live in and of the meagre wages they received. Evidence of this can be seen in his work Down and Out in Paris and London (1933).

Continuing with his writing, Blair also worked as a school teacher and as an assistant in a book store. Then in 1936 he was commissioned to write about the poverty in an economically depressed Northern England. Blair set out on foot and public transport and spent time investigating social conditions. He visited many homes to see how people lived and took detailed notes of housing conditions and wages. The result of this research was The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), a true reflection of the plight of many ordinary, working class people in the inter war years. Late in 1936 Blair travelled to Spain to fight in the civil war. He was true to his beliefs and wanted to fight against fascism, defending democracy, but the political situation there made it impossible for him to stay and he had returned to England by July 1937. His experiences in Spain gave rise to Homage to Catalonia (1938).

During the 2^nd World war, Blair worked for the BBC, and in 1943 became editor of The Tribune a weekly left wing magazine. At this time he was a prolific writer publishing articles, reviews, essays and books!

However, it is after the War, that the most famous of his novels were completed. Animal Farm (1945) tells the story of animals taking over the farm where they are living after driving the drunken, irresponsible farmer out. They adopt seven commandments, the most important being “all animals are equal”, and they are all happy. Gradually, over time, the pigs take over and replace all commandments with the slogan “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. One tyrant has been replaced by another. According to Blair the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and beyond. It is a very clever, well written read, which was well received and ensured Blair financial security.

Later, in 1949, Blair was to publish his last novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. This tells the story of an imaginary totalitarian country which is characterised by omnipresent government control and public mind control. The book made a deep impact and many ideas and phrases from it have now entered popular use. These include “Big Brother is watching you”, “newspeak”, “doublethink” and “thoughtcrime”, to name but a few. Blair was truly before his time!

Following a long period of illness Blair passed away in 1950, at only 46 years old.   

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Insults Without Swearing

I’m sure we are all aware of swear words to use if we ever feel the need to insult someone. Indeed they are used in films and television programmes repeatedly, so much so that they don’t really mean anything anymore. However, did you know that you can insult someone in English perfectly well without resorting to swearing? I don’t know about you, but I think there is something superior about not using swear words, it gives the impression that you are far more in control, and have a better use of vocabulary.

So, let’s have a look at a few examples. You may call someone an airhead, meaning they are a bit silly and empty headed. Similarly, a bimbo describes an attractive young lady who is an airhead, like a Barbie doll! Words like idiot, jerk, twit or muppet can be used to describe someone who does or says stupid or idiotic things. Just as an aside I actually prefer the Irish version of idiot which is “eejit”, somehow more expressive don’t you think?  Calling someone a flake suggests they are unreliable, the type of person who says they will do something but then doesn’t.

Various insults include the word arse. An arse-hole is an unpleasant, obnoxious person, whereas an arse licker or arse kisser says the things another person wants to hear to keep on their good side. An example of this may be a work colleague who can be seen to always agree with the boss, even when in private they express very different opinions! Then we have smart arses, who are always trying to impress and show off how knowledgeable they are on every subject, and tight arses who don’t like spending money, especially on other people! A dickhead tends to refer to a really annoying person. This insult is often accompanied by a hand signal suggesting a penis growing out of the head, indeed the hand signal itself, without any words is deemed an insult in its own right; everyone understands the meaning!

British people also use the names of some animals in an insulting way. You could say “a pig of a man” meaning a man who is selfish, possible putting his own needs before those of his family. A donkey or goose can refer to a silly person, whereas to call someone a chicken is to label them as a coward. A rat is usually used to describe a particularly nasty man, whereas an old cow would be seen as an interfering old woman. A silly mare, would again be used to describe a girl or woman who has acted in a particularly stupid fashion. Indeed, even amongst friends it is not uncommon to hear this insult if it is felt that someone has acted unwisely.

Once started we realize just how many insults we have! You can offend females by calling them “mingers” (unattractive), sluts (slovenly) or slags/slappers (of loose morals). On the other hand, tosser and pillock are fine insults for men whom you believe to be worse than stupid. I will leave you with perhaps the saddest insult of all “Billy no-mates” which refers to a friendless person!

Having mentioned muppet in this article, I could not resist including a clip of The Muppets at their best!

These are only a few of the pejoratives to think about. Maybe you can come up with others? Let us know in the comments box.

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