Dr Joe Bell

Liebow writes that it matters little whether Bell was the model or a model for Sherlock Holmes. What emerges from a journal kept by Bell is a picture of a respectable Victorian with a scalpel-sharp mind and amazing powers of observation and of a devoted husband and father. On the basis of research gathered from books, medical journals, and newspapers, Liebow traces Bell's family history, his time spent at Edinburgh University and the Royal Infirmary, his work training nurses, and his relationship with Arthur Conan Doyle, who took surgical classes taught by Bell. Liebow believes that Bell was a fitting model "for one of the must heroic of all literary creations." J. N. Stisted, who wrote the foreword, is the great-grandson of Bell and has one of the letters, written on May 4, 1892, from Doyle to Bell. Liebow has written a vivid portrait of Bell, giving readers a rich understanding of the man and his friendship with Sherlock Holmes' creator.