Alistair Duncan

Alistair Duncan grew up in South East and East England, holds a BSc(Hons) in Computer Science and has been in the IT Industry for over twenty years. One of the few passions he has had for longer has been a love of history, the Victorian era and, in particular, Sherlock Holmes and his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Duncan’s first book was Eliminate the Impossible (2008) which examined the Sherlock Holmes Canon and various movie adaptations. This was followed in 2009 by Close to Holmes which was a historical guide to locations in London with connections to Sherlock Holmes and his creator. The book was honoured by The Sherlock Holmes Society of London which short-listed it for its annual literary award – The Tony & Freda Howlett Literary Award – in 2010.

Duncan then focused his next three books on Sherlock Holmes’s creator. The Norwood Author, published in 2010, was a biography of the author’s short time spent living in South Norwood in present day South East London. The book won The Tony & Freda Howlett Literary Award in 2011.

An Entirely New Country (2011) covered Conan Doyle’s ten years living in Surrey at his home Undershaw. During this period he resurrected Sherlock Holmes, lost his first wife and remarried.

The final book, No Better Place (2015), covered Conan Doyle’s life from 1907 until his death in 1930. During this period he fought for the release of Oscar Slater and became a vocal supporter of the Spiritualist movement. The book was short-listed for The Tony & Freda Howlett Award in 2016.

Duncan currently lives in Surrey.