Q 01/05

Which musical instrument does Sherlock Holmes play?

A) Violin

B) Cello

C) Piano

D) Flute

Answer · why

A) Violin

Holmes plays the violin; in 'The Cardboard Box' he says he bought his Stradivarius from a broker in Tottenham Court Road for fifty-five shillings.

Q 02/05

In which year did Holmes first appear in print, in the novel A Study in Scarlet?

A) 1891

B) 1895

C) 1887

D) 1901

Answer · why

C) 1887

A Study in Scarlet was published in 1887 and attracted little notice; Holmes only became a sensation four years later, when the short stories began in...

Q 03/05

Holmes's debut novel was first published in which magazine?

A) The Strand Magazine

B) Lippincott's Monthly Magazine

C) Collier's Weekly

D) Beeton's Christmas Annual

Answer · why

D) Beeton's Christmas Annual

A Study in Scarlet appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual, a one-shilling paperback; only about eleven complete copies of that issue are known, making ...

Q 04/05

Alongside four novels, how many Holmes short stories did Doyle write?

A) 56

B) 60

C) 64

D) 72

Answer · why

A) 56

Doyle wrote 56 Holmes short stories, collected in five books from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) to The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927).

Q 05/05

Dr Watson was wounded while serving as an army surgeon in which conflict?

A) Second Anglo-Afghan War

B) First Boer War

C) The Crimean War

D) Second Opium War

Answer · why

A) Second Anglo-Afghan War

Watson was wounded in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, invalided home on the troopship Orontes and granted a pension of eleven shillings and sixpence a da...