HOLMES AND WIMSEY

In "The Nine Tailors", Lord Peter Wimsey complimented Hilary Thorpe by saying "As Sherlock Holmes would say, a colleague after my own heart."

There is no mention of the quote coming from the canon, and even if there were, we would have claimed that the stories were written by Dr. John Waton and that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was his literary agent. How, indeed, could I not take such a position?

Instead, we're claiming that Wimsey quoted Sherlock Holmes from the source, having heard the Great Detective utter the line himself. In fact, Holmes probably directed it to Lord Wimsey upon the completion of some case which they both worked on.

And I also subscribe to the theory that Holmes would be hale and hearty still in the mid-1930's, thanks to the attributes to be found in a diet of queen bee royal jelly. This is a traditional belief among those who dabble in "Sherlockiana" or "Holmesiana". (Based on my calculations, "The Nine Tailors" occurred in 1935. The bulk of the story takes place about twenty years after a jewel theft in 1918, and the main mystery seems to kick off on the night of December 29th, a Sunday. 1935 is the only year that would fit that criteria.)

In fact, this is a situation in which the Toobworld concept can mesh slightly with that of our friends who are devotees of Philip Jose Farmer's brilliant idea of the Wold Newton Universe. According to published treatises on the subject, both Holmes and Wimsey share a common ancestry among those affected by the Wold Newton meteor crash.

So Lord Peter Wimsey probably received that compliment from his own cousin.....

BCnU!