Congratulations to Jo Lee in Year 10 who has had a story published in a book about Sherlock Holmes. The context is that a charity called ‘Save Undershaw’ is trying to raise its profile in its attempt to save Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s house, where he wrote ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ and ‘The Empty House’ among other things. For example, they have appealed against the planning permission to convert Undershaw into flats. As part of this movement they launched an international competition to write a Sherlock Holmes short story. Jo saw it on the internet and submitted her story: ‘The Adventure of the Family Heirloom’ and it is published in this volume called ‘Sherlock’s Home – the Empty House’
Jo said: ‘I had already read all the Sherlock Holmes stories before I saw this competition advertised. I wanted to write about the time between ‘The Reichenbach Fall’ and ‘The Empty House’ when Dr Watson thinks Sherlock is dead, because Conan Doyle did not write about this period at all. My story concerns a bookbinder who finds that a book has been stolen in unusual circumstances. It is set in Victorian times just as the original Sherlock Holmes stories are. I am thrilled to be a winner in this competition and have my story published.’
