Charles Prepolec
@sherlockeditor
Editor on the 'Gaslight Sherlock Holmes' series, 'Professor Challenger: New Worlds, Lost Places' and 'Beyond Rue Morgue' anthologies. Mostly, I just like to read... but will rage about Canadian politics as a federal Liberal and AB NDP supporter in Calgary.
The summer issue of the Sherlock Holmes Journal - produced by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London - was in today’s mail. Great articles, but this issue adds a whole new dimension to the phrase ‘keep the memory green’. 😉
The summer issue of Canadian Holmes - the Sherlock Holmes journal of the Bootmakers of Toronto - turned up in yesterday’s mail. Great cover and excellent contents.
No wildfire smoke in my NW Calgary back garden this morning. At least not yet today. Ahhh…
In today’s mail is the signed UK first edition of Joe Abercrombie’s The Devils. Alternate colourway, foil blocking, sprayed edges and some nifty endpapers come together in this edition. As usual, I’m late to the game, but better late than never, I guess! 😎
Had to pause for Team Canada when coming home from a grocery run in NW Calgary this morning. 🇨🇦❤️
In today from The Broken Binding is their signed limited edition of M.R. Carey’s The Tinder Box. Loved last year’s Once Was Willem and most everything else I’ve read by him since his Felix Castor exorcist series. :-)
Current reading - Silence: Untold Tales of Algernon Blackwood’s Psychic Doctor Vol. 1 - edited by Dave Brzeski.
Current reading. 100 pages in and having a ball with it. Chinese Sherlock Holmes & Watson in 1920s London? To a degree. With walk-ons from Bertrand Russell & Ezra Pound? Yes. With Martial arts mayhem from time to time? Also, yes. Pulpy? Yep. Thoughtful on race? Also, yep. I'm enjoying this a lot.
Born #OTD in 1930: actor John Wood (5 July 1930 – 6 August 2011) who starred in the hugely successful 1970s Royal Shakespeare Company revival of William Gillette's 1899 play Sherlock Holmes.
Released 40 years ago #OTD July 2, 1986 - Disney's The Great Mouse Detective.
Happy Canada Day! The True North strong and free! 🇨🇦 Vote NO to Alberta separation. We are stronger together. 🇨🇦
#OTD June 22, 1925: Well after it's New York premiere in February, The Lost World opened wide across America on June 22, 1925.
Remembering that suave screen swashbuckler Errol Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) who was born #OTD in 1909.
"My God! It’s Watson,” said he. He was in a pitiable state of reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. “I say, Watson, what o’clock is it?” “Nearly eleven.” “Of what day?” “Of Friday, June 19th.” “Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What d’you want to frighten a chap for?”
Just in from the Broken Binding is their signed special edition of Christopher Buehlman’s Between Two Fires. Read it in April and really loved it so couldn’t resist this gorgeous edition.
To date, he is also the only actor to portray my 'other' fave literary character on the big screen, George MacDonald Fraser's Harry Flashman, in the rather unfortunately flat Royal Flash (1975). A charming man and talented actor who is a pleasure to watch in most anything.
Happy 83rd birthday to actor Malcolm McDowell who was born #OTD June 13, 1943. Never a screen Sherlock Holmes, but sporting a deerstalker as H.G. Wells in Time After Time (1979) is close enough for me. He did, however, give voice to Moriarty in Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes (2010).
Born #OTD in 1892 - Philip St. John Basil Rathbone (13 June 1892 - 21 July 1967). Through 14 films and countless hours of radio, his cinematic portrayal of Sherlock Holmes stands as the most iconic and influential media representation of the character in the latter half of the 20th century.
In today is the first Sir Sherlock book & CD combo - The Red Letter Day - with Tom Baker as Holmes and John Leeson as Watson, with Nicholas Rowe aboard as well. Script is by Gary Hopkins and the quaint little hardcover comes in at a tight 82 pages with a few illustrations by Andy Hosegood.
Pleased to see these great titles all won in their respective categories at last night's HWA 2025 Bram Stoker Awards ceremony - Novel, Long Fiction, Collection and Graphic Novel. Also, a Lifetime Achievement for Christopher Golden. Congrats to all the winners and nominees.
So glad we now have a horror specialty bookstore in Calgary! Signing for Craig DiLouie‘s new release Summer Fun Massacre at Nocturne Books June 27th.
Born #OTD actor Clive Brook (1 June 1887 – 17 Nov 1974). Brook appeared as Sherlock Holmes in The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929), 'Murder Will Out' segment of Paramount on Parade (1930) and Sherlock Holmes (1932). Brook is the first actor to play Sherlock Holmes in an English sound film.
Born #OTD actor Edward Woodward (1 June 1930 – 16 November 2009). He'll forever be Sgt. Howie in The Wicker Man or Robert McCall in The Equalizer to me, but he did play a miscast Sherlock Holmes in the television film Hands of a Murderer (1990) alongside John Hillerman as Watson.
Born #OTD in 1908, author & creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 Aug 1964). Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952. In 1961, Fleming wrote up the bedtime story he told to his son; Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, was published posthumously in 1964.
He also featured in a television adaptation of Conan Doyle's story The Leather Funnel in 1973 and recorded a number of single author readings, mostly from The Casebook, for Harper Audio.
Sir Henry Baskerville in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes (1962), Mycroft Holmes in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991), Sherlock Holmes and the Incident at Victoria Falls (1992).