Few could have predicted the enduring fascination with the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. From the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the recent BBC series that has made a heart-throb out of Benedict Cumberbatch, the sleuth has been much a part of the British and global cultural legacy from the moment of his first appearance in 1887.

The contributors to this book discuss the ways in which various fan cultures have sprung up around the stories and how they have proved to be a strong cultural paradigm for the ways in which these phenomena function in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Essays explore the numerous adaptations, rewritings, rip-offs, role-playing, wiki and crowd sourced texts, virtual realities and faux scholarship Sherlock Holmes has inspired. Though fervid fan behaviour is often mis-characterized as a modern phenomenon, the historical roots of fan manifestation that have been largely forgotten are revived in this thrilling book.

Complete with interviews with writers who have famously brought the character of Holmes back to life, the collection benefits from the vast knowledge of its contributors, including academics who teach in the field, archivists and a number of writers who have been involved in the enactment of Holmes stories on stage, screen and radio. The release of Fan Phenomena: Sherlock Holmes coincides with Holmes's 160th birthday, so it is no mystery that it will make a welcome addition to the burgeoning scholarship on this timeless detective.

Introduction - Tom Ue and Jonathan Cranfield

Sherlock Holmes and Shakespeare - Tom Ue

Holmes and the Snake Skin Suits: Fighting for Survival on '50s Television - Russell Merritt

Fan Appreciation no.1
Anthony Horowitz: Author of The House of Silk

Doyle or Death? An Investigation into the World of Pastiche - Luke Benjamen Kuhns

Fan Appreciation no.2
Elle Ann Soderstrom: Author of Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus

Sherlock Holmes, Fan Culture and Fan Letters - Jonathan Cranfield

Fan Appreciation no.3
The Team behind The Young Sherlock Holmes Adventures

Sherlock Holmes in the Twenty-second Century:Rebranding Holmes for a Child Audience - Noel Brown

Fan Appreciation no.4
Scott Beatty: Co-author of Sherlock Holmes: Year One

On Writing New Adventures on Audio: Into the Interstices of Canon - Jonathan Barnes

The Creation of 'The Boy Sherlock Holmes' - Shane Peacock

Fan Appreciation no.5
Robert Ryan: Author of Dead Man's Land

Getting Level with the King-Devil: Moriarty, Modernity and Conspiracy - Benjamin Poore

Tom Ue is Assistant Professor in English of the Long Nineteenth Century at Cape Breton University and Advising Editor of The Complete Letters of Henry James (University of Nebraska Press). He is the author of Gissing, Shakespeare, and the Life of Writing (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming) and George Gissing (Liverpool University Press, forthcoming); and the editor of George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming). Professor Ue is an Honorary Research Associate at University College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.