Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh on May 22, 1859, one of seven children who survived to adulthood. Rejecting his family's strict Catholicism and, cut off from their patronage, he decided to set up his own practice in Southsea in 1882. After the death of his first wife, Louise Hawkins, he went on to marry Jean Leckie in 1907 and they had two sons and a daughter. He died in 1930.

It is the Valley of Fear, the Valley of Death. The terror is in the hearts of the people from the dusk to the dawn. Wait, young man, and you will learn for yourself'. Sherlock Holmes is intrigued and disturbed when he receives an ominous coded message: a Mr Douglas of Birlstone House is in terrible danger. Before Holmes can act, shocking news arrives. Douglas has been founded dead - his face blown off by a shotgun. Scotland Yard is stumped. Was this suicide or murder? But Holmes is in no doubt. For he recognises the calling card of his nemesis. Professor James Moriarty.