Dr. Watson was the chronicler of every Sherlock Holmes adventure published in The Strand magazine between 1887 and 1927. He reported them with honesty in the bluff, army-style of a military doctor, so frank in their account of human behaviour that they were too risque for the morals of Victorian England. George Newnes, the editor, purged each story before its publication. Newnes also replaced Watson's jocular illustrations with Sidney Paget's more innocuous portrayals. Newnes deleted everybody's backgrounds but in these accounts Watson reveals Holmes's family: his father, Professor Julian Cornelius Bortzoy Holmes; his wife, Wendy; his sister, Rachel, as well as Mycroft. Watson also exposes Mrs. Hudson's property empire and he tells us how Professor Moriarty became "the Napoleon of crime." Some of this new material is shocking, even by today's standards! Book 12 synopsis, Dr. Watson returns from a night out with The Strand magazine to find Sherlock Holmes manufacturing a brand new halucinogenic narcotic with his chemistry set. When professional nanny, Miss Violet Hunter, consults the great detective about a job offer in Winchester, Sherlock Holmes believes that his standard of client has hit rock bottom. Nevertheless, he finds her extremely attractive and when she asks for his help in her new position he answers her call without a second thought. After an intoxicating lunch in Winchester, Holmes and Watson supplement their wine intake with ‘chimps’ – the tablet form of the new narcotic – so when they reach the home of Miss Hunter’s employer they are orbiting Jupiter! They experience a myriad of mind-boggling spectacles, uncover a dainty secret about their client and use the Manstopper revolver without the respect it deserves.

It is the morning after the day before a gargantuan win on the horses for Holmes and Watson and the celebrations have gone on through the night. They are dreadfully hung-over but Watson's friend, Archie, is so ill that he destroys the day's paper with a technicolour yawn, which is a shame because it reported a mystery in Croydon that Holmes is keen to investigate. Inspector Lestrade is on the case. He shows Holmes a parcel sent to demure middle-aged spinster, Miss Cushing that contains two human ears cut off with a rusty knife! Despite her apparent anonymity the great detective soon works out that Miss Cushing has a chequered past and her immediate family must be involved in this grim affair. Holmes tracks down the villain and solves the mystery in the basement of Scotland Yard where Colonel Sebastian Moran, one of Professor Moriarty's most dangerous henchmen, occupies one of the cells and is introduced to Doctor Watson for the first time. Chuffed and satisfied, on their way back to Baker Street Holmes and Watson drop in on their bookmaker to collect their winnings, but they are in for a nasty surprise.

Dr. Watson was the chronicler of every Sherlock Holmes adventure published in The Strand magazine between 1887 and 1927. He reported them with honesty in the bluff, army-style of a military doctor, so frank in their account of human behaviour that they were too risque for the morals of Victorian England. George Newnes, the editor, purged each story before its publication. Newnes also replaced Watson's jocular illustrations with Sidney Paget's more innocuous portrayals. Newnes deleted everybody's backgrounds but in these accounts Watson reveals Holmes's family: his father, Professor Julian Cornelius Bortzoy Holmes; his wife, Wendy; his sister, Rachel, as well as Mycroft. Watson also exposes Mrs. Hudson's property empire and he tells us how Professor Moriarty became "the Napoleon of crime." Some of this new material is shocking, even by today's standards! Book 11 synopsis, Holmes and Watson are given an early morning surprise when a well-dressed man visits 221B Baker Street. Events of the night before have sent the City banker into a frenzy and he starts to tear his hair out in front of the great detective. Holmes and Watson travel to south London, to the modest home of their new client, only to find a dispirate family at loggerheads over something that went bump in the night. The finger of guilt is pointed firmly at the client’s son but Holmes thinks differently and launches himself into the mystery whilst Watson evokes an extraordinary metal-bending practice from his army days in India, with calamitous results. The adventure ends with an initiation for Dr. Watson to The Diogenes Club.

Dr. Watson was the chronicler of every Sherlock Holmes adventure published in The Strand magazine between 1887 and 1927. He reported them with honesty in the bluff, army-style of a military doctor, so frank in their account of human behaviour that they were too risque for the morals of Victorian England. George Newnes, the editor, purged each story before its publication. Newnes also replaced Watson's jocular illustrations with Sidney Paget's more innocuous portrayals. Newnes deleted everybody's backgrounds but in these accounts Watson reveals Holmes's family: his father, Professor Julian Cornelius Bortzoy Holmes; his wife, Wendy; his sister, Rachel, as well as Mycroft. Watson also exposes Mrs. Hudson's property empire and he tells us how Professor Moriarty became "the Napoleon of crime." Some of this new material is shocking, even by today's standards! Book 9 synopsis, Holmes and Watson attend Ascot Races as guests of Lord Coventry. On the first day they lose all their money but, luckily, next morning they are engaged by a new client - an engineer who has had his thumb sliced off by a German chopper. When he describes how something more intimate has been bitten off in a scene of such horror it puts Watson off his breakfast, they go in pursuit of the villains. Meanwhile, at Ascot, Dr. Watson is befriended by The Prince of Wales and given a hot tip by The Jewish Chronicle in the Gold Cup. If the horse wins it will not only recover their losses but also pay the rent arrears at 221B Baker Street. Quotes from the author "I have been racing at Royal Ascot for 43 years. When Conan Doyle sent Holmes and Watson in that direction, to solve the mystery of the engineer's thumb, I had a chance to feature Ascot Races in 1891. What fun to write about this unique racecourse! In those days we didn't have Frankie Dettori, but we have the badly-behaved Prince of Wales instead - Bertie - who embraces Dr. Watson and uses him as a bookie's runner." "When I read the original story I was underwhelmed by the character of a rather naive engineer. He has a grim night in a local house where he is attacked because of his nosiness. I decided to turn up the volume and made sure that his experience was a scene of such horror it could have been in a Roger Corman movie."

Dr. Watson was the chronicler of every Sherlock Holmes adventure published in The Strand magazine between 1887 and 1927. He reported them with honesty in the bluff, army-style of a military doctor, so frank in their account of human behaviour that they were too risque for the morals of Victorian England. George Newnes, the editor, purged each story before its publication. Newnes also replaced Watson's jocular illustrations with Sidney Paget's more innocuous portrayals. Newnes deleted everybody's backgrounds but in these accounts Watson reveals Holmes's family: his father, Professor Julian Cornelius Bortzoy Holmes; his wife, Wendy; his sister, Rachel, as well as Mycroft. Watson also exposes Mrs. Hudson's property empire and he tells us how Professor Moriarty became "the Napoleon of crime." Some of this new material is shocking, even by today's standards! Book 8 synopsis, the day after a gathering of Sherlock's family at 221B Baker Street in which Horatio - Sherlock's violin - makes its debut, Miss Sharon Stoner engages the great detective to find out why her sister, Sandra, died in suspicious circumstances two years previously. Now, she is in fear of her own life. Holmes and Watson accompany their terrified client to her family home in Leatherhead where they have to overcome an irascible stepfather, a baboon, a cheetah and something much more deadly!

Dr. Watson was the chronicler of every Sherlock Holmes adventure published in The Strand magazine between 1887 and 1927. He wrote them with fastidious accuracy and honesty, so frank in their detailed expression of true human behaviour that they were too risqué for the public morals of the late Victorian era. George Newnes, the editor of The Strand magazine, spent many sleepless nights expurgating each story before its publication. Newnes also discarded Watson’s colourful pictures portraying lively action scenes throughout each submission; they were replaced with more innocuous monochrome illustrations. Newnes’s editing process removed references to Sherlock Holmes’s background and ancestry. The same goes for all of the leading characters. Maybe Newnes thought that accounts of individual backgrounds distracted the reader from the exposition of each story? We do not know. In these recently discovered unexpurgated accounts, we meet Holmes’s family and learn about his heritage. Being the narrator, Dr Watson reveals his inner self in intimate detail, followed closely by “the master detective� himself. We find out about Mrs Hudson and how she came to own 221B Baker Street, and how Professor Moriarty became the master criminal of the Victorian underworld. Some of this new material is quite shocking, even by today’s standards, let alone those of 19th century England. By way of an example, here is the original and unexpurgated version of ‘The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.’ Book 7 synopsis: It is later December in 1889. A battered old hat is the only clue to the mysterious disappearance of a Christmas lunch. But when Sherlock Holmes lays out the facts of the case, Watson finds them incorrigible. A startling revelation at 221B Baker Street adds the dimension of a jewel theft, which sends the detective duo on a tour around central London where they encounter two of the three hazards on the bucket-list of life that a gentleman must never do. The clues that they uncover brings them back to Baker Street for a seemingly infeasible conclusion.

Dr. Watson was the chronicler of every Sherlock Holmes adventure published in The Strand magazine between 1887 and 1927. He reported them with honesty in the bluff, army-style of a military doctor, so frank in their account of human behaviour that they were too risque for the morals of Victorian England. George Newnes, the editor, purged each story before its publication. Newnes also replaced Watson's jocular illustrations with Sidney Paget's more innocuous portrayals. Newnes deleted everybody's backgrounds but in these accounts Watson reveals Holmes's family: his father, Professor Julian Cornelius Bortzoy Holmes; his wife, Wendy; his sister, Rachel, as well as Mycroft. Watson also exposes Mrs. Hudson's property empire and he tells us how Professor Moriarty became "the Napoleon of crime." Some of this new material is shocking, even by today's standards! Book 4 synopsis, Mrs Hudson forces Holmes and Watson to settle a trivial feud. They embark upon an eventful railway journey to Ross-on-Wye where Inspector Lestrade is on the case of a brutal murder, which has taken place near a lake surrounded with dog turds. Lestrade has made some obvious conclusions to make a water-tight case against a young man but Sherlock Holmes dives into the undercurrent of local society and discovers a string of old relationships that tell a different story.

Dr. Watson was the chronicler of every Sherlock Holmes adventure published in The Strand magazine between 1887 and 1927. He reported them with honesty in the bluff, army-style of a military doctor, so frank in their account of human behaviour that they were too risque for the morals of Victorian England. George Newnes, the editor, purged each story before its publication. Newnes also replaced Watson's jocular illustrations with Sidney Paget's more innocuous portrayals. Newnes deleted everybody's backgrounds but in these accounts Watson reveals Holmes's family: his father, Professor Julian Cornelius Bortzoy Holmes; his wife, Wendy; his sister, Rachel, as well as Mycroft. Watson also exposes Mrs. Hudson's property empire and he tells us how Professor Moriarty became "the Napoleon of crime." Some of this new material is shocking, even by today's standards! Book 3 synopsis, The formidable Miss Mary Sutherland consults Sherlock Holmes about a mysterious and elusive suitor. She tells her story from Watson's ancient Egyptian chair, the Mummy Couch, but he is more worried about her hefty derriere breaking the antique heirloom than her missing lover. Later on, Watson is introduced to Holmes's parents for the first time and discovers he has an amorous admirer in Sherlock and Mycroft's sister, Rachel.