Beloved Books
An occasional series of notes about favourite books, together with the covers of the editions I first read them in.
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
I plunged into the world of Sherlock Holmes at the age of ten, starting with The Adventures. In Hull with long-saved pocket money I first bought a wonderful John Murray paperback with an evocative red and yellow cover; then I saw this edition in the window of a Christian bookstore opposite The People's Palace in Cuba Street, Wellington, New Zealand, a Salvation Army hotel where my family stayed when we first arrived as emigrants to New Zealand in 1961. I determined that one day I'd own that edition, and many years later, long after it was out of print, tracked down it and its companion volumes with their equally striking covers. And of course, inside, there was the wonderful, atmospheric,sometimes scarifying but ultimately deeply comforting world of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. "The game's afoot!"
