Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859 and died in 1930. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University and later set up practice as a doctor at Southsea. It was while waiting for patients to arrive that he began to write and it was the success of his many adventure stories that allowed him to actively pursue the many causes that captured his attention, whether it was divorce law reform or the issuing of steel helmets to troops. However, it is for the enduring appeal of his Sherlock Holmes' stories that Conan Doyle will always be remembered. Sherlock Holmes is the world's most famous consulting detective. He resides at 221B Baker Street in London, where prospective clients can always reach him. While the police are known to make extensive use of his talents and the criminal fraternity to tremble with fear or fury at mere mention of his name, it is to the most bizarre or thoroughly inexplicable of mysteries that Sherlock Holmes - together with his dogged companion and amanuensis Dr Watson - is most often drawn.