Arthur Conan Doyle: a life by Hesketh Pearson read by Tim Pigott-Smith

The fact that Hesketh Pearson knew Conan Doyle, and that his life of the man who invented Sherlock Holmes was written before many of the Doyle papers disappeared into a lawsuit in which they are still unmeshed, gives his 1943 biography an interest all its own. Pearson makes good use of Doyle's 1924 autobiography, Memories and Adventures, so that we get a satisfying sense of the voice of a man who was, it seems, more mild Dr Watson than drug-addicted detective. Truer models for Holmes were one of Doyle's tutors at the Edinburgh medical school and a student contemporary called Budd. The stories were spun as the unsuccessful Dr Doyle sat in consulting-rooms devoid of patients. But Doyle was a gentleman of the old school, dedicated to chivalric causes; his only regret was that people loved Holmes too much and Brigadier Gerard, his own favourite of his creations, too little. David Timson has abridged Pearson's words skilfully; Tim Pigott-Smith is a fine choice as reader. Let's hope Naxos will add Brigadier Gerard's exploits to their four sets of Sherlock Holmes's adventures.

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