Sunday, August 17, 2014

ARTHUR AND GEORGE - Julian Barnes



This is based on the true story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji.

Edalji is a small town solicitor who is wrongly convicted of a series of crimes involving animal mutilation and is sentenced to 7 years imprisonment.

Doyle takes up the case which results in the conviction being quashed but not until Edalji has served 3 years.

Reading this you can understand why the Holmes stories portray the constabulary as dolts.  I had to wonder how many people went to he gallows because of the ignorance and prejudices of those involved in the convicting process, scary indeed.

The novel contains a large amount of biographical detail regarding Doyle; his up bringing, his marriages which is very interesting, he is a very interesting man.

Barnes knows how to write a crime story as he has written several as 'Dan Kavanagh' featuring Duffy his gay private investigator which are great fun.

I enjoyed this and its well worth the time.

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