Booktime: Interview with Gareth Rubin, author of Holmes and Moriary

How did you come to write a new Sherlock Holmes novel?
My agent was also the publisher of Anthony Horowitz's new Sherlock Holmes books. So he was in contact with the Conan Doyle estate, and it came out of that. My last book The Turnglass had two different narratives, and I was looking to do something similar, but not exactly the same. In Holmes & Moriarty you have two contrasting narratives of the same events, narrated by Watson and Moran.

Deadly green spiders form a part of the plot. Were they inspired by real spiders?
Yes, the green lynx spiders exist in South America. They are not as deadly as I make out in the book. Mine are a rare subspecies! But I chose them because they are a poison-spitting spider, and are really zappy. You certainly wouldn't want them to spit on you!

What is it about the characters of Holmes and Moriarty which have made them so enduringly popular?
Sherlock Holmes is the most adapted character in history. There have been more film adaptations of him than anyone else. He's popular in every society. I had a meeting with my Japanese publishers last year, and Sherlock Holmes is so big in Japan. One of the most popular kids' cartoons is Miss Holmes. In the TV series House starring Hugh Laurie, the eponymous character is based on Sherlock Holmes – that's why he's called House, it's a play on ‘Holmes'.

Wasn't the character of Sherlock Holmes based on a doctor?
Yes, Conan Doyle's old lecturer, Dr Joseph Bell, who would encourage his students to look at a cadaver and work out what profession that person had. If he had black fingers, it meant that he was printer. You can well understand why – diagnosis is literally trying to work out what has happened before. Hugh Laurie's character in House specialises in diagnosis. So we are, as human beings, fascinated with mystery and trying to work out what happened before, whether that's in a medical or crime setting. That's in our DNA as human beings. That's why there are so many popular medical crime dramas, from CSI to Diagnosis Murder, starring the great Dick Van Dyke.

Did you reread the classic Conan Doyle books to write the novel?
I'm constantly rereading them, but I didn't sit down to read them all. I did see the silent film of the very first Sherlock Holmes stage play, written by Conan Doyle and William Gillette. Gillette was an American actor and the play is just called Sherlock Holmes. When people tell you that Holmes never said ‘Elementary, my dear Watson' you can tell them that actually he did – in the stage play! The film was made in 1917, and it recreates some storylines from the canon. I watched some of the Basil Rathbone films too. They are interesting because they were set in what was then the modern day, during the Second World War, so Holmes is rooting out Nazi spies. But then, Conan Doyle did actually have a storyline in His Last Bow, which is set in 1917 and sees Holmes discover a German spy! Everything we write which we think is new, has usually been done before.

Which other authors inspire you in your work?
Every author is inspired by every book they've read, even bad ones. There are some books that I've read over the past twenty years which I really think should be burned! People always say that you shouldn't burn books, but I think some should be burned regularly. But even the ones which I think are dreadful, they are still an influence on my writing!

What do independent bookshops mean to you?
The people who run them aren't enthusiasts, they're sorcerers. They manage to turn a bunch of bricks of mortar into dreams and new worlds for human beings, whether they are young, old, male or female. They make entire worlds out of nothing. Independent bookshops are the lifeblood of creativity and imagination in Britain.