New Book Detects Schizophrenia in Sherlock Holmes' Creator

(December 18, 2006) -- SHERLOCK HOLMES' creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle suffered from a form of schizophrenia, new research has claimed.

The Edinburgh-born author inherited the mental condition from his father Charles, according to GP turned author doctor Dr Andrew Norman. Dr Norman claims in his new book that Conan Doyle was displaying classic signs of mental illness in his later life and believed voices were calling him from "another world".

Father Charles Doyle spent almost a decade in the Royal Asylum of Montrose and Crichton hospital in Dumfries.

Conan Doyle was born in a house near the top of Leith Walk that has long been demolished, but a statue of Sherlock Holmes now stands near the site in Picardy Place. His second family home in Portobello has also been razed.

Liberton Bank House became his home at the age of five in the 1860s and he lived there for four years, before being sent to a boarding school in Lancashire.

Historians who led the campaign to save Liberton Bank House believe the young Conan Doyle wrote his first stories in the building and that he thought he saw fairies in the garden.

The inspiration for Sherlock Holmes came from his mentor at Edinburgh University, lecturer and chief surgeon Dr Joseph Bell.

Source: Scotsman.com

Last updated: 12/06

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