Entertainment
Why Sherlock Holmes’ razor sharp creator embraced the paranormal | Books | Entertainment
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Image: Getty)
Peering through a magnifying glass beneath his signature deerstalker hat, sucking on a blackened clay pipe, Sherlock Holmes remains the world’s greatest literary detective, immortalised in more than a century of books, films and television. The Baker Street sleuth’s preternatural powers of observation and a rigorously logical and scientific mind mirrored those of his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Yet the greatest mystery of Conan Doyle’s own life has remained unsolved – until now.
At the height of his intellectual powers the author stunned his friends and admirers by embracing the paranormal, trying to communicate with the dead, and declaring his belief in fairies.
“The recognition of their existence will jolt the material 20th century mind out of its heavy ruts in the mud, and will make it admit that there is a glamour and mystery to life,” wrote Conan Doyle in 1920.
It was a shocking assertion from the razor-sharp mind that had crafted the unerringly analytical stories that for the past 136 years have made Sherlock Holmes an unparalleled sleuthing genius admired across the globe.
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Conan Doyle’s embrace of fairies came just a few short years after he had shaken London society by declaring his belief in spiritualism, endorsing mediums who claimed to communicate with the deceased in the Great Beyond. “Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent,” as Sherlock tells his loyal companion Dr Watson in A Case Of Identity.
For the past century Conan Doyle’s credulous faith in fairies and the spirits of the dead speaking from the afterlife has been dismissed as the wishful thinking of an overactive imagination. But a new book, The Real Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, shockingly claims that the creator of the great fictional detective suffered mental illness inherited from his alcoholic father. “It’s long been a mystery why the mentally rigorous Conan Doyle would claim to hear voices, see the dead, and believe in fairies,” says writer Andrew Norman, of Poole, Dorset, who like the author trained as a medical doctor before becoming a writer.
“Conan Doyle experienced hallucinations and delusions, probably as a feature of an inherent tendency to mania. He may well have inherited his delusional disorder from his father Charles, who had exhibited many of the features of a schizophrenic.”
Charles Doyle, a talented artist who spent the last 14 years of his life forcibly incarcerated in mental and medical institutions, may have suffered bipolar disorder, acute schizophrenia, dementia, psychosis and epilepsy, according to Norman, who examined long-forgotten family medical records and Charles’ private diary.
Charles also suffered hallucinations and delusions, “said he was getting messages from the unseen world,” and like his famous son displayed an “intense interest” in goblins, fairies and elf-like creatures.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with father Charles Doyle (Image: Getty)
“Charles was hearing voices – which is indicative of a serious and inherent psychiatric disorder, but which also is instantly reminiscent of the spiritualistic experiences that his son, Conan Doyle, would describe in his later life,” says Norman.
The fear of following his father’s descent into madness haunted the author.
“I think he spent his entire life afraid he might succumb to the same mental illness as his father Charles had done,” says Norman. “Yet when mental illness did finally overcome Conan Doyle he failed to recognise it.”
London-born of Irish ancestry, Charles moved to Edinburgh, and with Scottish wife Mary had ten children, seven surviving to adulthood. He drew the illustrations for his son’s first Sherlock Holmes novel in 1887, A Study In Scarlet, but was plagued by alcoholism and advancing mental illness. Charles’ heavy drinking triggered epileptic seizures, and a likely bipolar disorder led to depression and manic episodes.
“Charles, who displays traits characteristic of both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, is said to be suffering from a schizo-affective disorder,” which led to his alcoholism, says Norman. His father’s violence and paranoia kept Conan Doyle at boarding school for much of his childhood, even during the holidays. “Charles was dangerous when he got into these psychotic rages,” says Norman.
Despite the mental challenges his father faced, Conan Doyle’s admiration for him was undiminished, saying his father’s life was “full of the tragedy of unfulfilled poets and underdeveloped gifts”.
Charles spent years locked away in the Montrose Royal Asylum, the Royal Edinburgh Asylum, and Crichton Royal Hospital in Dumfries, where he died during an epileptic fit in 1893, at the age of 61. Like a literary detective, Norman finds clues to Conan Doyle’s mental history hidden in his writings, including many of his Sherlock Holmes mysteries.
In The Adventures Of The Cardboard Box, Conan Doyle wrote of “an impulsive man… prone to occasional fits of hard drinking,” who admits he “becomes like a madman when my temper gets loose”.
In The Empty House, Sherlock suggests that an adversary suffers a hereditary mental illness. And in The Sign Of Four, Holmes uses cocaine to sharpen his mind, prompting Norman to wonder if this was a result of Conan Doyle seeing his alcoholic father possibly addicted to opiates. Charles’s wife Mary wrote that not booze but “undue use of stimulants” plunged her husband into madness.
Conan Doyle, a lapsed Catholic, in his later years apparently lost the mental rigour that in his youth prompted him to state: “Never will I accept anything which cannot be proved to me. The evils of religion have all come from accepting things which cannot be proved.”
But the horrors and slaughter of the First World War unleashed a flood of adherents to spiritualism, with many in British society attending seances, consulting clairvoyants, and trying to contact their dearly departed.
Frances Griffiths’s picture of the so-called Cottingley Fairies (Image: Getty)
“It is treacherous and difficult ground, where fraud lurks and self-deception is possible,” admitted Conan Doyle. Yet his demand for logic and proof faded in the face of his inherited mental illness, Norman believes.
“Conan Doyle wanted to believe in fairies and communicating with the deceased, and he was suffering delusional disorder, seeing things that weren’t there.”
Yet nothing prepared Conan Doyle’s admirers for his 1922 book The Coming Of The Fairies, in which he revealed his faith in the magical winged creatures, elves and gnomes.
He was completely convinced of the authenticity of a series of photographs of fairies frolicking in an English glen, taken by nine-year-old Frances Griffiths and her friend Elsie Wright, aged 16, behind their home in Cottingley near Bradford in 1917.
The Cottingley Fairies may have been dismissed as a childhood prank coupled with clever photographic manipulation, but became world famous when Conan Doyle hailed the images as proof that fairies were real.
Photographic experts at Kodak warned Conan Doyle that the Cottingley fairy pictures could have been “artificially” manipulated by “some clever operator,” but he chose to believe only the expert who told him the snaps “are entirely genuine unfaked photographs of single exposure, open-air work”. Predicting a new era of fairy-human amity, he said: “These little folk, who appear to be our neighbours, with only some small difference of vibration to separate us, will become familiar.”
Ridiculed, Conan Doyle died in July 1930, aged 71. It was another 51 years before Frances Griffiths confessed that the fairies had been illustrations cut out on cardboard and suspended in the bushes with hatpins. “Conan Doyle’s grandiose delusions made him abandon his logical intellectual rigour,” adds Norman. “He was suffering from a disorder, and understanding that is the key to unravelling the mystery that overshadowed his later years.”
- The Real Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Andrew Norman (White Owl, £20) is out now. Visit expressbookshop.com or call Express Bookshop on 020 3176 3832. Free UK P&P on orders over £25.
Entertainment
Fortnite down – Server maintenance start time and matchmaking for update 35.10 | Gaming | Entertainment
Fortnite developer Epic Games is about to add new content to the game, although it’s not all good news.
According to Epic Games, Fortnite update 35.10 is coming to PS5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch and Android on May 16. It adds new Star Wars content as part of the Galactic Battle event.
Unfortunately, however, the good news ends there, because the new content won’t be available until server maintenance comes to an end.
Fortnite will be taken offline at 9am BST UK time, while matchmaking is disabled shortly beforehand.
READ MORE: Fortnite update 35.10 release date, maintenance time, Chewbacca, General Grievous, more
The news was announced by Epic Games on X (formerly Twitter), alongside a confirmation of the server downtime.
“Insert Wookiee growl,” reads a Fortnite post. “Downtime for v35.10 begins at 4 AM ET with matchmaking ending shortly beforehand.”
For UK fans, this means that Fortnite will be taken offline in full at 9am BST, while matchmaking will be disabled at 8.30am UK time.
Epic hasn’t revealed exactly when downtime will come to an end, but maintenance typically lasts for 2-3 hours.
This means Fortnite and all companion game modes should be back online from 11am BST UK time at the earliest.
Daily Express will update this article with all the latest developments, so keep checking back for confirmation about the Fortnite server maintenance.
The new update will add new Star Wars material to the game, including Wookies like Chewbaca and his Bowcaster.
“Chewbacca’s ETA is May 15, and he’s bringing his Wookiee Bowcaster to the loot pool to aid the rebels,” Epic continues. “You’ll also find the powerful CA-87 Jawa Scatter Blaster in Chests around the Island — new to Fortnite!”
Elsewhere, General Grievous should be available to unlock from the Battle Pass.
Needless to say, new skins will also join the item shop, including a new Mandalorian variant.
Entertainment
Elvis Presley’s facelifts, webbed toes and dyed hair details disclosed by family | Music | Entertainment
It’s not uncommon for celebrities to have plastic surgery, but did you know that Elvis Presley, who would have been 90 this year, had work done?
Fans may consider The King to have been naturally handsome enough but that didn’t stop him. Those who knew him personally in his private life have opened up on the incredible truth.
Danny Smith, who grew up at Graceland and is the son of The King’s cousin Billy, previously said on his YouTube channel Memphis Mafia Kid: “Elvis had…I guess you could say facelift procedure done to his face and his eyes. I was talking to Mom and Dad about this the other night and verified it. And that actually he had [it] done in Memphis and they actually went with him. So he did have a few things done. I mean, in my opinion, I don’t see how something that is almost perfect needs to be messed with. He didn’t need anything in my opinion.”
Danny’s father Billy, the last surviving original Memphis Mafia member said previously of The King’s facelifts: “He thought it made him look better and that he needed it. Elvis always tried to improve his looks.” The star’s cousin shared how the music icon had caps on his teeth installed and moles removed. And it turns out he had had at least two facelifts; one in 1957 and the other in 1975.
On the first facelift in 1957, Billy said: “To me, it wasn’t a facelift. Elvis did not like the flare in his nose at that time, how wide it was. So he decided to have it trimmed down and that’s what they did…which made him look…god! I don’t know how you can look any better, but he did.”
As for Elvis dying his hair jet black, he added: “The reason being someone told him his eyes were so blue and all that, [so] if he had dark hair it would make his eyes stand out.” This was confirmed by The King’s ex-girlfriend Linda Thompson, who lived with him at Graceland from 1972-6.
Speaking previously with Reel Talker, Linda said: “[He would use] hair spray and hair dye. He was more a natural blonde, a dirty blonde. He died his hair black for drama.” As for the rumour about webbed toes, she admitted: “He had twin toes, which meant that his second toe from the big toe and the third toe were conjoined up to what would be the knuckle. And I used to tease him a lot about having webbed toes! So he had twin toes. That’s something most people don’t know.”
Entertainment
Top 10 directors of all time and Steven Spielberg doesn’t make the cut | Films | Entertainment
With so many incredible directors out there, it’s hard to pick a favourite. There are your living legends Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, directors with a specific style or genre like Tim Burton and Wes Anderson and then blockbuster directors like Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino.
Female directors are accounting for some of the most successful and creative films in the industry. Greta Gerwig who turned from acting to directing, is making waves with her features including Barbie, Ladybird and Little Women. Sofia Coppola is also an iconic director who started out in acting, with works including Lost in Translation, Priscilla and The Virgin Suicides. Forbes has listed its greatest directors of all time – has your favourite made the list? Here are the top 10 directors of all time as selected by Forbes.
10. Chantal Akerman
Best known for her films Jeanne Dielman, News from Home (1976) and Je Tu Il Elle (1974), Belgian Feminist avant-garde filmmaker Chantal Akerman has been helmed as a “directors’ director” due to her influence on cinema. She is responsible not only for films but also art exhibitions, various documentaries and also short films. She topped the BFIs Sight and Sound list in 2022 for her film Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.
9. Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini was nominated for 17 Oscars and won a record four in the Best Foreign Language Film category. He is best known for works including La Dolce Vita (1960), 8½ (1963) and Roma (1972). Prior to his 50-year career Fellini dropped out of law school and began working in radio. He later became involved with the neorealist Italian film movement, but is best known for his art films that followed this era.
8. Satyajit Ray
Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray is widely known for The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959), The Music Room (1958) and the Goopy–Bagha trilogy. Hiswork had also been inspired bythe Italian neorealist movement but he crafted a style of his own through his use of traditional Indian music, meticulous editing and using actors from a diverse range of backgrounds. Francis Ford Coppola and Christopher Nolan have cited Ray as an influence to their work.
7. Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick is a renowned filmmaker with a huge legacy including A Clockwork Orange (1971), Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). He was notorious forbeing difficult to work with as a director. Kubrick won very few awards for his work but was nominated for 13 Oscars. However, despite this, he has inspired many directors to follow suit in his directing style, especially when it comes to camerawork and framing.
6. Wong Kar-wai
Hong Kong-based filmmaker Wong Kar-wai is best known for films is best known for his films Chungking Express (1994), Happy Together (1997) and In the Mood for Love (2000), but he got his start in TV. He has influenced many other directors including Quentin Tarantino, and this was due to his tendancy to create often feature broken narrative structures, use of bold saturation, pop music and step-printing, a process which alters film rates.
5. Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock has been labelled as the “Master of Suspense” and directed mroe than 50 films in his decades-long career. His legacy is however largely tainted due to his treatment of female leads. He is best known for Rebecca (1940), which earned him his first of five Academy Award nominations for Best Director, alongside Suspicion (1941) and Dial M for Murder (1954).
4. Jean-Luc Godard
The Swiss-born director Jean-Luc Godard was a pillar of French New Wave cinema. His filmography includes Breathless (1960), Contempt (1963) and Masculin Féminin (1966). He was famous for giving his actors free reign to explore their performances and was known to begin filming with unfinished scripts. Godard liked to play with narrative, continuity, sound and camerawork in many of his works especially jump cuts.
3. Frank Capra
Frank Capra’s films largely captured the idealism of what America could be in the 1930s and 1940s. He began working in silent comedies but his best known works include You Can’t Take It with You (1938), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). He emigrating to America from Sicily at five years old and went on to win five Oscars and earn lifetime achievement awards from the American Film Institute and the Directors Guild of America in his career.
2. Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder started his career writing scripts in Germany. Austrian born, many of Wilder’s family members were killed by the Nazis. After he left Germany in the 1930s, Wilder has cemeted himself as one of Hollywood‘s greats by the 1940s. Someof his most well-known works include Sunset Boulevard (1950), Sabrina (1954) and Some Like It Hot (1959). He was nominated for 21 Oscars, and won six, including two for Best Director.
1. Akira Kurosawa
Most famous for Seven Samurai, across a 60-year career Kurosawa worked across genres on books, TV and theatre as well. As well as classic samurai fare, he gainged recognition for noirish dramas like Drunken Angel (1948), period pieces like Rashomon (1950) and riveting crime flicks like High and Low (1963). He helped to popularise Japanese films in the West and many other notable directors described him favourably. Kurosawa started working for Photo Chemical Laboratories (which later became Japan’s Toho Studios) in 1936 at the age of 25.
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