Was Arthur Conan Doyle really like his most famous fictional character, the rational Sherlock Holmes? Why then, irrationally, did he become a fervent follower of Spiritualism? Did he really believe in the existence of fairies or was he mad? This intriguing compilation offers a portrait of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in fact and fiction. There are extracts from his spiritualist writings, as well as a complete Sherlock Holmes short story The Adventure of the Speckled Band and extracts from the rarely read short story Danger! There are excerpts too from other popular works, The Lost World and Brigadier Gerard and the largely forgotten The White Company. All these combine to give us an insight into this complex character.