About these materials

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  • Sherlock Holmes is the most popular detective in world literature.
  • This website introduces new readers to some of the most famous stories.
  • Texts stay close to the original, with the same chapter structure etc.
  • Presentations include short audio & video clips.
  • All resources are free to access
  • More advanced readers are encouraged to access the original texts
  • There is a complete version of the most famous novel The Hound of the Baskervilles

English language level: broadly suitable for pre-intermediate and above (CEF: A2+)
Most popular

The Editor

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I have written readers for three of the most popular series of graded reader: Oxford Bookworms Library, Penguin Readers & Macmillan Readers

My titles include original stories like Love by Design (Macmillan) and simplified versions of classics including Washington Square by Henry James (OUP) & Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray (Penguin).

You can see a partial list of my titles here.

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Three of my titles were singled out for their ‘particular excellence’ in Bamford & Day’s Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom (CUP) where I was described as being ‘amongst the best writers of language learner materials in English’.

Please note
My version keeps the original chapter structure, but shortens the text to about a 40% of the original.
◦ The abridged text stays close to the spirit of the original
◦ I have removed the Laura Lyons subplot (too complex) and have simplified those involving the Seldon, the Barrymores, the Stapletons
◦ I have simplified grammar, syntax, vocabulary etc. Famous quotations/passages I have tried to keep intact
◦ Text and audio by leading author of graded readers
◦ English language level Intermediate (A2/B1 unless indicated)
◦ Worksheets, presentations & other teaching materials free for classroom use under CC Share-alike licence
◦ Materials are free to access with no requests for personal details/email addresses etc
◦ This site is completely independent. It receives no external funding, sponsorship or endorsement from external bodies

To help subsidise free access to these materials there are advertisements. I hope these are not intrusive and would request that you do not use or encourage ad-blockers


About the original stories

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Who wrote the stories. When?


Arthur Conan Doyle was a young Scottish doctor. He published his first Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet (1871) while he had a family medical practice in Southsea, Portsmouth.

Earlier he was a ship’s surgeon of the coast of west Africa

How stories many are there?
  • Four novels: A Study in Scarlet (1887), The Sign of the Four (1890), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), and The Valley of Fear (1915)
  • 56 short stories over 40 years, including The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894). These continued until 1927
  • Countless theatrical, television & film adaptations

Did Holmes die in one of the stories?
Nearly. Famously Conan Doyle tried to kill him off in "The Final Problem" (1893); but he returned in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901), and Doyle continued to write stories featuring him up to 1927. 

Did Doyle write other famous stories?
Yes, the best known is The Lost World (1912). He also wrote historical novels about the Napoleonic wars but these are now much less popular.