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“My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don’t know.” - Sherlock Holmes

This year, we celebrate the birth anniversary of another literary genius. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a Scottish physician and writer, was born 155 years ago - on May 22, 1859. His creation of one of the most renowned fictional characters, detective Sherlock Holmes, paved the way for future detectives and real-life police investigations.

Doyle was indeed inspired by Joseph Bell (1837-1911), a lecturer at the medical school of the University of Edinburgh, which he attended. He observed, “It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important” and “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.” At the university, he met James Barrie (1860-1937), the author of Peter Pan, and Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), the author of Treasure Island.

Holmes’ intuition, logic, and powers of scientific observation and deduction opened many of his fans’ eyes to every detail of events and facts that they hardly noticed. The Sherlock Holmes stories, which also feature his loyal assistant Watson, have been milestones in the field of crime fiction. After he first appeared in A Study in Scarlet (1887), Holmes is active in four novels and 56 short stories.

Holmes, alongside his archenemy Professor Moriarty, plunges to his death down the Reichenbach Falls in the story The Final Problem (1893). But in the face of public outcry, Doyle brought Holmes back to life in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901). Doyle died of a heart attack at age 71, in 1930. His novels and short stories have been adapted into films, stage productions, or TV and radio series.