150th Anniversary Celebration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The 150th Anniversary Celebration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is on Friday 22 May (7.30-10pm) and Saturday 23 May (10am-5pm) 2009. Speakers include: Andrew Lycett, Owen Dudley Edwards, Prof Alistair Fowler and James Mavor

Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh on the 22nd May 1859. The creator of the world's most famous fictional detective drew heavily on the place of his birth and the city where he studied medicine. It was the medical world of Edinburgh that provided Conan Doyle with the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes and many other characters that populated his books, including his explorer hero Professor Challenger.

The real influences on Conan Doyle's writings are often overshadowed by the tremendous success of his characterisation of London in the Sherlock Holmes' stories. Holmes' famous Baker Street address, equally fictional, has made London the somewhat undisputed centre for Conan Doyle pilgrims. However, it was his home city that first fuelled his storytelling genius and inspired the creation of his ‘great scientific detective'. Holmes was based on the real life Edinburgh surgeon, and Conan Doyle's teacher, Joseph Bell.

It is the importance of Edinburgh and the medical influences in Conan Doyle's life and work that brings together leading Conan Doyle authorities in the city to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth on the 22nd May. The event will take place at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh where Conan Doyle sat his anatomy exams, and of which his great mentor Joseph Bell was President.

Speakers confirmed include:

Owen Dudley Edwards, Historian and Sherlock Holmes authority

Andrew Lycett, author of the acclaimed 2007 biography of Conan Doyle: The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Professor Alistair Fowler, eminent academic of Conan Doyle's contribution to English Literature

James Mavor, screenwriter and film-maker whose TV drama Reichenbach Falls was based on the Ian Rankin short story The Acid Test

On the evening of Conan Doyle's birthday, the 22nd May, the celebrations include:

• A special evening drinks reception in the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh's historic Surgeons' Hall with appreciations of Conan Doyle given by Owen Dudley Edwards and Andrew Lycett, with others TBC
• A reading and interpretation of the Holmes' short story The Dying Detective
• A private view of the exhibition Conan Doyle and Joseph Bell: The Real Sherlock Holmes in Surgeons' Hall Pathology Museum

On Saturday 23rd May from 10am-5pm the guest speakers will give presentations on aspects of Conan Doyle's life and work followed by audience questions and discussion.

Tickets costing £55 are available from museum@rcsed.ac.uk or by telephone 0131 527 1649. Space is limited and early booking is advised.

For further information or to arrange visits, contact Dawn Kemp, RCSEd Director of Heritage on: d.kemp@rcsed.ac.uk , or Emma Black on: e.black@rcsed.ac.uk or 0131 527 1649.