A new British TV drama will look at the real-life adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, who led an eccentric life every bit as fascinating as the character he would be most remembered for.
The three-part mini-series Arthur & George will be adapted from the Booker Prize-winning novel by Julian Barnes of the same name, and follows Doyle in his real-life efforts to clear the name of a wrongly convicted half-Indian, half-British solicitor.
Part-time sleuthing was just one part of Doyle's renaissance man skill set. The Edinburgh-born writer was a doctor, and first started writing short stories while attending medical school. He was also an avid sportsman, playing soccer and cricket, and later dabbled in psychic spiritualism.
Here are five more interesting (perhaps unusual) facts about the Sherlock Holmes creator.
• The athletic Doyle helped to popularize skiing. In the late 19th-century, he moved to Davos, Switzerland, where he developed a fondness for the still-obscure sport. He would later introduce Brits to the winter activity after publishing a feature about skiing in Strand Magazine. "You have to shuffle along the level, to zigzag, or move crab fashion, up the hills, to slide down without losing your balance, and above all to turn with facility," he wrote. This sparked the trend for Europeans to visit Switzerland for skiing holidays (well, the ones who would afford it, anyways).
• He once worked on a whaling ship sailing for the Arctic Circle as the ship surgeon. This experience inspired his story "The Captain of the Polestar."
• He was knighted in 1902 by King Edward VII, but not for creating Sherlock Holmes as many people believe. He received the honour for writing a pamphlet about the Boer War and defending British actions during it.
• He was once good friends with iconic illusionist Harry Houdini, but the pair had a falling out over Spiritualism. Doyle was a big-time believer, and Houdini sought to discredit it.
• The details of Doyle's death are pretty dramatic. The writer, who had been struggling with angina, died at age 71 while in his garden. He collapsed, clutching a flower, and reportedly whispered his last words to his wife: "You are wonderful."