The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Author Interview – Kelvin Jones

Throughout the Kickstarter campaign, we will be adding brief interviews highlighting the talented authors who have contributed to the anthology. Today we have the excellent Kelvin Jones.

How did you first get introduced to Sherlock Holmes?

Through my public library in London.

‘I am an omnivorous reader.’ – Holmes

What was the inspiration for your pastiche?

The true story of Edmund Kelly and Dr John Dee, both Elizabethan necromancers.

What is your story about? Where and when does it take place?

The story concerns the discovery of an ancient box, which the owner of a large Elizabethan house, discovers. This is tale from the early years of Holmes, as told by him to Dr Watson.

What do you believe readers will most enjoy most about your tale?

The gothic and almost supernatural and sinister atmosphere.

Which is your favourite story from The Canon and why?

Undoubtedly the Hound of The Baskervilles. As Doyle commented to his mother ‘It’s a real creeper!’

Your favourite Sherlock Holmes-related place?

The Cedars in Lee, now London, where Jean Leckie, Doyle’s 2nd wife, lived, as did Neville S Clair, the central character in The Man  with the Twisted Lip and which was also  the birthplace of my favourite Victorian poet, Ernest Dowson.

Tell us three things about yourself that few people would guess?

I have  edited a six volume edition of the shocking erotic memoirs of a Victorian gentleman, under the title of ‘Satryiasis.’ I have recently reissued a 2 volume, annotated edition of Krafft Ebing’s ‘Psychopathia Sexualis.’ which, as a study of deviant human sexuality, I am convinced Holmes as a criminologist, would have read.

Any upcoming projects?

A biography and new edition of the work of Ernest Dowson, 19th C. lyrical poet and decadent. I hope to persuade the London Borough where he lived to raise a plaque on the house where he died in 1900 and thus help promote his outstanding work..

Click here for more details on the Kickstarter campaign.