THE LAST OF HOLMES

My journeys to work are about to get a little "different" again, but not for the reasons you may have imagined. We remain in the grey box next to the sewage works, the nightly clearing of the room of all valuables (and consequent lugging of them back and forth) continues, and the mornings themselves remain dark, although there is the occasional glimmer of sunlight in the sky which implies the much-welcome eventual arrival of spring.

No, it's the bit in the car to which I am referring. Specifically the entertainments which have been soothing my nerves and pleasing my ears for the past few months since I realised that I could no longer handle the sadness of the tales being told on the "Today" programme each morning, or the various exciting afternoon programmes which accompanied me home.

Oh, don't get me wrong, the "Infinite Monkey Cage" was a delight, as was "A Good Read" but the former always seemed to outlast my journey, and the latter always seemed to cost me a bundle in Amazon orders.

I am, of course, referring too the fact that I have finally reached the end of my epic “Complete Sherlock Holmes” audiobook commuter run, as the final disc has now been listened to now, and now that I've travelled from "A Study in Scarlet" through to "The Retired Colourman", there really is nowhere else to go.

More than sixty discs have been popped into the player and all fifty-six short stories and the four novels have accompanied me to and from work during a most difficult period of my life, and I really think that I'm going to miss them, not least for the occasional childish cheer which I simply cannot resist hollering whenever there is some kind of ejaculation.

Well, you have to find whatever means you can to brighten up your days, don't you…?

And the language, even if it is somewhat archaic, is also so very rich and evocative that it can become rather addictive, and the smooth and silky tones of Sir Derek Jacobi, the reader of the versions I acquired, has felt absolutely like the perfect voice with which to tell them.

That said, time and again as I've been driving along, I've wondered whether I could persuade any tame actor of my acquaintance to pull up an armchair, don a smoking jacket and recite one or two of the tales for a tame audience. Would people be interested…? Would anybody turn up…? Would that serve as a suitable evening's entertainment in this rough and tumble world in which we live…? Perhaps more to the point, do I know anyone with that kind of voice and who might want to do it...?

After my sterling (and probably very unwise) efforts to track all of the collections down when the company producing them went into administration, it has been quite nice revisiting the canon once more, having read the complete works way back in my late teens when I first got my - now very battered - copy of the Penguin "Complete Sherlock Holmes" edition, which drew me into a definite interest in the many worlds of "Uncle Sherlock" on film and television, some of which still slip perfectly into the DVD player on cold, dark winter's evenings when a cosy, familiar tale from a strangely comforting - if remarkably violent - world is required.

I really do love the language of these adventures, and the stories have distracted my mind from far darker thoughts as I’ve been driving to and from work during these past few months, but now I’m wondering quite what to replace them with.

I could, of course, just start again from the very beginning, but I think that it may be slightly too soon to try doing that. Equally, there are many other books on CD just sitting and gathering dust upon the shelves at home already, many of which are definitely worth revisiting, even if they wouldn't quite be transporting me back to similar worlds, I might instead find other worlds to explore.

However, if I choose to take these other diversions, this could be enough get me through the summer and might just mean that I can return to Baker Street with the onset of winter again, which might be quite appropriate.

After all, the chill winds and the fog do rather suit the mood.