HOLMES UPDATE

I was explaining recently about the difficulties that I was likely to have completing my Audiobook collection of Sherlock Holmes stories (as read by Sir Derek Jacobi), given that the company producing the range which I had found that I particularly liked had "gone under" in that unfortunate way that businesses have of doing so nowadays.

I had, of course, only discovered them far later than the rest of the world seemed to have and had been "treating" myself to one a month for about three months when the hammer fell and it became apparent that I would have to gorge upon them in order to acquire the remaining ones which I might have wanted.

Well, despite my fears, my Audio CD collection has already become far more complete than I really deserved, having clicked on a few orders that very day and then been left wondering whether they would actually be able to be fulfilled.

"A Study in Scarlet" arrived first, having been despatched within the day, and despite it being one of those tales about which I wasn't quite as fussed about hearing. It was almost as if they had mountains of them in the warehouse, but, given that my other orders remained steadfastly at the status of "Not Yet Dispatched" I began to suspect that the rest would remain in that perilous state for a while until I received the inevitable "We are sorry but we are unable to fulfil your order" email...

Still, I would inevitably check my outstanding orders regularly, clinging on to the sliver of hope that Amazon (the UK version) might just be in close enough contact with Amazon (the US version) to get some supplies from them shipped over to complete any orders that they had. Actually, realising that they even had that connection saved me from hours of internet drudgery and despair, at least for the time being.

In the meantime, I took a punt on ordering a copy of the "Casebook" from a Marketplace seller who described the copy that they had as being "new" but with a ripped cover, and that was swiftly sent to me, with the "ripped cover" turning out to be little more than a tear in the shrink-wrap wrapping which I would be throwing away anyway.

Of course, on one level I had already decided that I wasn't completely bothered if I actually acquired the supposedly rather lacklustre "Casebook" anyway, but I was happy that it actually showed up.

Meanwhile, the "Not Yet Dispatched" status of "The Sign of Four" mysteriously changed to "Preparing For Dispatch" and I did a little mental jig when later on that day it changed again to "Dispatching Now" and, to my eternal surprise, "The Valley of Fear" went through much the same transformation a couple of days later and both are now "In Transit" although, given the strange tale of how I had to order the "Adventures" twice back in September because they were "unable to deliver it" (???), I'm not counting either of those chickens yet.

Sadly, the "Return" remains, as it has for over a week now, at the status of "Not Yet Dispatched" which is, of course, fairly typical, as it was the one which I was most keen to listen to, given that Mr Sherlock Holmes had just plummeted to his apparent doom whilst grappling to the death with the fiendish Professor James Moriarty.

I know, of course, that I could just read the books myself but, given the current circumstances, that really just is not the same thing at all.

Which brings us to the knotty problem of "His Last Bow", a collection which seems to always be rather over-priced for the eight stories which it contains, and yet which includes "The Bruce-Partington Plans" and, given that the rest of my plans work out for the best, the gap will stick out like a missing tooth when all of the rest sit upon my groaning shelves.

I've not yet ordered a copy, having already decided that the later "lesser" works from the canon enclosed within both "His Last Bow" and the "Casebook" were not quite as "essential" as all of the others, but then, you see, I did get hold of the "Casebook" despite myself.

Decisions, decisions...

What would Holmes do...?

Well, of course, I am in the unique position of knowing precisely what this particular Holmes is likely to do, but I am trying my best to learn that I don't actually have to be a completist...

Or do I...?

Well, of course, you know that I do. That gap-toothed smile on the shelf was always going to be more than I could bear, but I will justify my final purchase on the grounds that Sir Derek could have just read out Sir Arthur's old shopping lists and make them sound entertaining and exciting, even if most of those "adventures" seem to take place mostly from an armchair situated next to a blazing log fire.

Actually, that sounds like a perfectly acceptable way of going about things to me...

Still, in the grand tradition of the Victorian adventure story, we'll end upon a note of purest false jeopardy. After all, there are still no guarantees that the necessary volumes to fill those gaps will actually ever turn up, are there...?

Which does of course mean that the useful expression "And with one bound, Holmes was free..." may yet not prove appropriate...