Holmes the sleuth

 

A local band of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts are keen to make Welsh the 77^th language that the famous works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been translated into.

Welshpool is home to Wales’s first Deerstalkers Society, a global network set up in honour of Holmes who has enjoyed a massive comeback through the successful BBC television series and Guy Richie films starring Robert Downey Jnr.

The group meets this weekend and high on the agenda is the proposal to turn at least one of the works into Welsh.

“We are trying to get a translation of one of the Holmes cases into Welsh,” said the group’s founder Roy Upton-Holder. “This will be a first. Although they have been translated into 76 languages, Welsh is not one of them!”

The bustling cobbled streets of London are a far cry from Welshpool’s Little Henfaes Drive where Roy (pictured) regularly dons his deerstalker, Inverness cape and lights up his pipe to relive and capture the super sleuth’s battles with crime.

“Sir Arthur wrote four novels and 56 short stories about Sherlock Holmes and I have read them all many times,” said Roy, who began his fascination almost 60 years ago.

“I was in hospital when I was 20 and my father brought me a Sherlock Holmes book to read and I just couldn’t put it down. I remember reading all night! I was hooked and have been a great enthusiast ever since.”

Roy’s home is a shrine to the fictional character that first appeared in print way back in 1887.

Even before entering the house, the sign on the wall welcomes you to Baskerville (from the classic The Hound of the Baskervilles) and you are immediately met in the hallway by a mirror cut in the famous silhouette of Holmes along with an array of framed memorabilia.

“This is an actual tile from Baker Street Station,” Roy points out one of the myriad framed items covering the wall to the staircase. In fact, the legendary detective is present in every room of the house from the ‘Sherlock Holmes for Dummies’ book to dolls and toys clothed in his famous attire.

Holmes and Dr Watson fridge magnets are features of the kitchen along with the ‘Sherlock Holmes cook book’. And just when you thought you had seen it all, the garden shed is 221B Baker Street (Holmes’s address), a flower patch is sign-posted Grimpen More (from The Hound of the Baskervilles) and even the cat lives in the Diogenes Club complete with published ‘house’ rules at its entrance (fictional gentlemen’s club in The Greek Interpreter). The cat, by the way, is named after Holmes’s brother, Mycroft.

“I wouldn’t say that I am a Holmes purist,” joked Roy. “I do know all of the characters and a few years ago I could probably answer any question asked about him but there are some people that live and breathe the character.”

With the support of his wife, Joan, Roy launched the Welshpool Deerstalkers Society when they moved to Montgomeryshire in 2001. They discovered others shared their passion and haven’t looked back since.

“We welcome people of any background to the society that share an interest in Sherlock Holmes,” he said. “It has become a great way of bringing people together and has also helped to integrate people into the community that have moved here from away. We hold gatherings through the year.”

While Welshpool is home to Wales’s only Deerstalkers Society, a further 20 exist in England but one in Scotland. There are hundreds of societies that operate across the world from the USA and Russia to Japan where Roy claims that Holmes is a ‘phenomenon’.

Roy’s mastery of everything Sherlock Holmes knows no bounds. He can tell you that the character smokes more cigarettes in his books than a pipe while you can only spot a ‘true’ Holmesian when they can name book number two as ‘Sign of the Four’.

Roy explained: “That was the original name for the book but Hollywood chopped it to ‘Sign of Four’ for release. This is our way of knowing if the person you are speaking to really does know what they are talking about!”

Saturday’s meeting launches a busy period for the Deerstalkers. It takes place at 7.30pm at the Old School, Guilsfield, when an illustrated talk on Forensic Science from Sherlock Holmes to the present day will be given by Ian Corke BR (Hons). There’s also a quiz and a raffle. Admission is £5 (which includes light refreshments) with tickets available in advance from Roy on 01938 554 840. All proceeds go to Guilsfield Church and The Deerstalkers.

Visit www.sherlockholmeswelshpool.com  for more information.