SHSL Annual Dinner 2015

Saturday January 17th saw the Annual Dinner of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London.

Parliament from St Stephen's Tavern
As is traditional, my wife and I made our way to St Stephen's Tavern, a modest hostelry a short distance from Parliament. There we met with Roger Johnson, Jean Upton and Robin Rowles.

A short while later saw us inside that great building mingling with the other guests. I was especially pleased to see and speak to many people I'd only known on Twitter previously (oh how the Sherlockian world has moved on).

Following an excellent dinner, chairman Bob Ellis got down to serious matters. The Winner of the Tony Howlett Award this year was deservedly Roger Johnson and the speech, given by Professor Russell Merritt, was enlightening. The subject was the recent discovery of the lost film of William Gillette as Sherlock Holmes. Prof Merritt made the very interesting point that the discovery of the film means that our generation will be the last to only know of Gillette by reputation. From now on people will be able to judge for themselves.


The troops gather
Thanks, in part, to the large number of international guests to be welcomed, the night ran on longer than I had expected and my wife and I were forced to dash for the last train home. We limped in the front door at about 1.30am. So if I didn't get to speak to you on the night I hope to do so in the future.


Written by Alistair Duncan
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