“Anything else?” asked Holmes, yawning. “Oh, yes, plenty.”

Mayday Mayday is changing!

Our newsletter Mayday Mayday  is switching from a monthly to a bi-monthly publication, with effect from the current issue (no. 120, September 2012). This means that in future there will be five issues per year, instead of ten as heretofore. Issues will now however be twice as long so on average readers can expect to find eight pages instead of the four they previously did. And we’re getting off to a really big start with twelve pages in the latest issue to devour.

Subjects covered in issue no.120 include the schedules for the September and October sailings alongside an overview of the coming season. We’ve also got a 2-page special on our new Universal Sherlock season which is devoted to all twelve films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. In addition, readers will find the Logs for the last two voyages, lots of stuff on books including a review of The Sherlock Holmes Miscellany and a great deal more besides.

Mayday Mayday is available to members in both electronic and printed formats.

The Return of Sherlock Wenlock

Sherlock Wenlock (see also Bulletin no.89), one of the silent stars of the London 2012 Olympics, has been bought for £6,500 by an anonymous donor and will be on public display in the Worcestershire town of Malvern.

Roger Johnson, writing in the latest District Messenger (no.325, 13 September 2012) tells us that the money raised by selling the eighty-four statues of the Olympic & Paralympic mascots will go to the Mayor’s Fund for London, which will help disadvantaged children.

There is a really great feature about Sherlock Wenlock on the Sherlockology website, which you really don’t want to miss. Sherlockology is the unofficial BBC Sherlock fansite, if you didn’t already know that important piece of information.

Return to Reichenbach

Around seventy members of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, along with the world’s most famous consulting detective (splendidly played by our good friend David Jones – watch out Benedict Cumberbatch!) have been retracing the steps that led to the momentous struggle at the Reichenbach Falls. Ashley Mayo undertook the role of Dr. Watson while all the other members involved on the trip were to be found attired in suitable Victorian garb, vividly impersonating a choice selection of characters from the stories. This is the seventh time that the Society has made a Pilgrimage to Swizerland.

A Handbook of the trip, Return to the Reichenbach, is available from the Society’s website.

You can read the Blog of their daily doings here and you can watch a Video of their departure from London (by plane, not train) here.           

Yet more Sherlock awards!

Surely there must be a severe danger of overcrowding in the BBC Sherlock trophy cabinet?  Just the other night, at a ceremony at London’s Dorchester Hotel, the series picked up the TV Choice 2012 Drama Award while Benedict Cumberbatch got his hands on the gong for Best Actor.

Holmes at the Ulster Hall

A Literary Lunchtime Talk at Belfast’s Ulster Hall on 23 August 2012 included a couple of brief nods to Holmes.

The Ulster Hall was also the setting for two talks on spiritualism, delivered by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in May 1925.

Sherlock Holmes Redux: The Great Detective lives on

If you’ve a spare few minutes, here’s something interesting to read, from the independent review website Critics at Large.

Book to Die For?

Books to Die For, edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke [752 pages. Hodder & Stoughton. Hardcover. 30 August 2012 (UK).] includes a short chapter on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes story collection.

And finally

Did you click on the Links in this edition? If not, you didn’t get the full story.