EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 8 © 2014 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

62 a belt, which often has a hood or cape. Holmes wore one in ‘The Blue Carbuncle’, (1892) and A Study in Scarlet (1887), but this garment lacks the shoulder cape, which adds a dash of stylish, almost Gothic, dramatic flair to the Great Detective’s costume. It was the artist Sidney Paget who, taking the vague descriptions provided by Doyle, created a pictorial legend that is now instantly recognised worldwide. And it all came about by accident, or so the popular version of events claims. When the Strand Magazine began printing the Holmes short stories in 1891, the publisher George Newnes was keen to have a set of illustrations accompanying every story that featured in the periodical. To achieve this he appointedW. H. Boot as the art editor. ABOVE: Paget’s original art depicts Holmes and Watson in leisurely mode from ‘The Adventure of the Cardboard Box’ published in The Strand magazine, January 1893. FACING PAGE: A tense moment from ‘The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb’ which first appeared in The Strand magazine in March 1892.