Part of Series
Here, though the world explode, these two survive, And it is always eighteen-ninety-five. So wrote Sherlockian Vincent Starrett in his 1942 poem 221b, soon after the United States entered World War II. Even as those years brought terrible challenges, so too has 2020 been a year of great testing for so many of us, as a global pandemic rages and good people are called to stand against evil. For Sherlockians, comfort can be found in climbing those seventeen stairs to the Baker Street sitting room, where it is always eighteen-ninety-five - or a few decades on either side of it. In 2015, the first three volumes of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories arrived, containing over 60 stories in the true traditional Canonical manner. That was the largest collection of new Holmes stories ever assembled, and originally planned to be a one-time event. But readers wanted more, and the contributors had more stories from Watson's Tin Dispatch Box, so the fun continued. Now, with the release of Parts XXV, XXVI, and XXVII, the series has grown to nearly 600 new Holmes adventures by almost 200 contributors from around with world. Since the beginning, all contributor royalties go to the Stepping Stones School for special needs children at Undershaw, one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's former homes, and to date the project has raised over $75,000 for the school. As has become the tradition, this new collection features Holmes and Watson carrying out their masterful investigations from the early days of their friendship in Baker Street to the post-War years during Holmes' retirement. Join us as we return to Baker Street and discover more authentic adventures of Sherlock Holmes, described by the estimable Dr. Watson as "the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known." 59 new traditional Holmes adventures in three simultaneously published volumes The game is afoot! All author royalties from this collection are being donated by the writers for the benefit of the preservation of Undershaw, one of the former homes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Authors
In the 1980s I published five Sherlock Holmes short stories in individual booklets: The Purple Hand, The Unseen Traveller, The Zodiac Plate, The Secret of Shoreswood Hall and The Christmas Visitor. In the 1990s, these stories were collected, with the addition of one new story, The Green Umbrella, as the first two volumes of The Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes. Two further volumes of The Chronicles followed, containing a further eight stories. In 2014 and 2016, two volumes of The Lost Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes were published, containing a mixture of new stories and older stories which had appeared over the years in magazines, anthologies etc. Now, forthcoming in December 2016, is my first Sherlock Holmes novel, The Riddle of Foxwood Grange.
Hailing from Bedford, in the South East of England, Matthew Simmonds has been a confirmed devotee of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous creation since first watching Jeremy Brett's incomparable portrayal of the world's first consulting detective, on a Tuesday evening in April, 1984, while curled up on the sofa with his father. He has written numerous short stories, and his first novel, "Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of The Pigtail Twist" was published in 2018. A sequel is nearly complete, which he hopes to publish in the near future. Matthew currently co-owns Harrison & Simmonds, the fifth-generation family business, a renowned County tobacconist, pipe and gift shop on Bedford High Street.
