Sunday, April 03, 2016

How Sherlock Holmes anticipated Lord Bonkers

A couple of years ago Lord Bonkers reminisced about an incident from the 1920s:
One bright April morning the 11:15 for Northampton Castle left Nottingham London Road Lower Level as usual, but it never reached its destination. It was seen to call at Melton Mowbray North, and there were unconfirmed reports of it reaching Clipston and Oxendon, but one thing is sure: it never arrived in Northampton. 
Extensive searches were undertaken and reports of sightings from as far afield as Bodmin Road and Leeming Bar were followed up, but not a trace of the train or its passengers was ever found.
What I didn't know then was that this is strangely reminiscent of a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle called The Lost Special.

It is not a Sherlock Holmes story, but he surely makes an appearance as the writer of a letter about the affair to The Times.

You can listen to a reading of it by David Schofield on the BBC iPlayer for the next four weeks.

A final thought... Can I be sure that Lord Bonkers was not pulling my leg?

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