There is a new movie making its debut - Suffragette, about those in Britain who lead the fight to give
women the right to vote. This remarkable process played in the background of Sherlock Holmes - The Golden Years
by Kim Krisco.
Most Sherlock Holmes adventures do not bring in historical
background to any great degree. So, this is one area where Sherlock Holmes - The Golden Years adds an extra richness. Having
done some research on the Suffragette movement in Britain, I have an
appreciation for the courage of the women who lead the movement.
While the women’s suffrage movement in the United Kingdom
began about 1872, with the formation of the National Society for Women’s
Suffrage, it didn’t make the daily headlines until the early 1900’s when the
movement became more militant and violent.
WWI caused a temporary halt to suffrage activity and, in
1918, the Representation of the Peoples Act granted women limited voting
rights. However, it wasn’t until 1928 when all women in Britain gained full
voting rights.
Sherlock Holmes’s made a good attempt at going into
retirement in Sussex Downs around 1905. He traded his lodgings at 221B Baker
Street for a traditional thatched-roof stone cottage, and took up bee keeping.
Indeed, he wrote a book on apiculture entitled: A Practical Handbook of Bee Culture with Some Observations Upon
Segregation of the Queen. Most appropriate, as Holmes was an expert at
keeping himself personally “segregated” from women – as it were. However, in
his trips to the city, he could not help but confront some formidable ladies in
the streets, as the suffrage movement was in full swing by 1905.
One of the key figures in the suffrage movement was Emmeline Pankhurst, who is one of
several infamous historical characters that can be found in the new collection
of Sherlock Holmes adventures. In the Curse of the Black Feather, Holmes
and Watson meet Emmeline Pankhurst at a party where Watson has the dubious
honour of escorting her to dinner.
Holmes, however, had a much more fascinating dinner partner that evening
– Irene Adler, “the woman” who mysteriously reappears his life and haunts him
in all five of the stories in this historically accurate 345-page collection.
In Sherlock Holmes-The
Golden Years the reader gets all the mystery and magic of Holmes at his
best, interesting real-life historical characters, and a rich and highly
accurate historical background, all of which adds great depth to the stories.
In Sherlock Holmes-The
Golden Years the reader gets all the mystery and magic of Holmes at his
best, interesting real-life historical characters, and a rich and highly
accurate historical background, all of which adds great depth to the stories.
You can buy Sherlock
Holmes-The Golden Years, as a book or E-book, at Amazon and other good bookstores.