Lighting the Pipes

Published as a collection in 1917, "His Last Bow" is the penultimate set of Sherlock Holmes stories by Conan Doyle. Comprised of sporadically appearing tales carried in the Strand Magazine and Colliers Weekly, its contents span the years from 1908 and 1917. These first four tales couldn't be more different from one another... or could they? Hmm... join Bowman and the BFG as they light their pipes...

Shovel the coal and stoke the fires! In Episode 16, Bowman & the BFG take a trip to Vermissa Valley in and explore "The Valley of Fear", its colourful denizens and the complex virtues of Arthur Conan Doyle's fourth and final novel treament for Sherlock Holmes. Secret societies, smoking guns and revenge killings all feature on the menu in this "locked-room" mystery with a grand narrative back-s...

In this episode, Bowman and the BFG wrap up discussions on the final 4 stories of "The Return" and wax rhetoric on issues of class, cigarette history, insane wives and favourite cudgels. First up are "The Golden Pince-Nez" and "The Missing Three-Quarter" where left-over lenses and a missing rugby star are features of investigation. The mysteries of "The Abbey Grange" and "The Second Stain" conclud...

In this instalment, Bowman and the BFG celebrate their nearly-1-year anniversary of Lighting the Pipes by tackling four further adventures from "The Return of Sherlock Holmes". Whaling, sailing and harpoon flailing take center stage in "Black Peter", while "Charles Augustus Milverton" sees Holmes go undercover in love to best a master criminal. Discussion of the "Six Napoleons" and its fan-favouri...

Technical difficulties resolved (we told you they were amateurs!), Bowman and the BFG get back to lighting their pipes with three more stories from "The Return of Sherlock Holmes". First up, the duo cut shapes over "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" and all of its been-here-before atmosphere. They then take a country ride with "The Solitary Cyclist" before concluding Episode 13 by visiting the "Pr...

With "The Hound of the Baskervilles" behind them, Bowman and the BFG sit down to discuss the great detective's resurrection; enter "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", starting with "The Adevnture of the Empty House" where readers finally get the chronological follow-up to Holmes' plummet from the Reichenbach falls. Originally intended to be a three-episode show, technical troubles forced Episode 12 t...

After Sherlock Holmes took the literary plunge over the falls in "The Final Problem", public outcry for his return was strong enough (helped by equally generous offers from publishers) for Conan Doyle to resurrect the fabled detective. Cleverly, Doyle doesn't bring him back to life in linear chronology but through this stand-alone novel, an earlier case from Watson's diary. Bowman and the BFG get...

Only two stories remain to discuss from Conan Doyle's "Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" and here Bowman and the BFG give full treatment to both. First up is "The Naval Treaty", one of Doyle's supposed personal favourites and longest story. Secondly, "The Final Problem" and the great issues of Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes' death are put under the spotlight. 

Here, four stories go under the microscope as Scott and Josh light their pipes and discuss the further Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Your hosts bow to "The Reigate Squires", straighten out the mystery of "The Crooked Man", apply some bedside manner to "The Resident Patient" and try to translate the workings of the "The Greek Interpreter". 

In Episode 8, Bowman and the BFG follow Sherlock and Watson to Birmingham in "The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk", meet his university pal and a tale of mutiny in "The Gloria Scott" and get all geometric in "The Musgrave Ritual". This conversation covers the fourth, fifth and sixth story in "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes".  

Given the explosive popularity of his "Adventures", it was a no-brainer for Conan Doyle to revive his titular hero in a second collection of serialised stories for "The Strand". First out of the gate for "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" is "The Adventure of Silver Blaze", which finds Holmes and Watson on location in Dartmoor. This famous case is followed by the graphic tale of revenge, "Adventure...

Episode 6 sees Bowman and the BFG share their thoughts on the final three stories of Doyle's "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". Lively discussion on the growing influence of America colours "The Noble Bachelor", while a royal bank loan brings ropy collateral damage in "The Beryl Coronet". The collection (and conversation) concludes with the imposing sway of the "Copper Beeches". 

In this instalment, Josh and Scott sit down to examine tales 7, 8 and 9 from Conan Doyle's "Adventures". Starting with the yuletide setting of "The Blue Carbuncle", the duo trade views on jewel theft before moving on to evaluate the highs and lows of the famous "Speckled Band". The gothic features and deceptively simple plot of "The Engineer's Thumb" round off the discussion.  

Discussions on "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", "The Five Orange Pips" and "The Man With the Twisted Lip" mark Bowman and the BFG's second foray into the stories of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".  

"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" appeared two years after "The Sign of Four" and in serialised form within the pages of "The Strand Magazine". Here, in their first look at the collection, Scott and Josh discuss the first three stories: "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League" and "A Case of Identity". 

Two years after Sherlock Holmes first appeared in "A Study in Scarlet", ACD dropped "The Sign of Four" onto the literary landscape. Larger and more imperial in scope, many regard this novel as Conan Doyle's finest extended Holmes adventure. Bowman and the BFG light the pipes and serve up their analysis in Episode 2.

In Episode 1, Scott and Josh (Bowman & the BFG) wield their amateur podcasting touch in discussing Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story. The series starts here, with our inaugural episode recorded in February 2017. Introductions, a brief Doyle biography and our approach to scoring and indexing our reading are each presented before diving into the origins of the Holmes phenomenon with "A S...