Changes

|title=Sherlock: His Last Bow

|author=Arthur Conan Doyle

|publisher=BBC Books

|date=December 2013

|summary=A slender example of the original stories, with many brilliant dashes of the intelligence of the series.

}}

''The End''. I got told off for writing those two simple words at the end of a short story I wrote at school, aged about eleven. If it is the end, I think the teacher was saying, it should be obvious. If it isn't, there's still no way the words are necessary. But at least I'm not alone. Conan Doyle, the south coast Doctor turned entertainer extraordinaire with all his output, was told off for the way he finished things. Holmes dead? Sorry, not allowed, Mr Doyle. Holmes retired to keep bees near Eastbourne? Beyond the pale, Sir – bring him back. You don't like the labour of proving your genius invention to be such a genius? Tough. And so we come to 'His Last Bow', which Watson tells us is the final, final, ending story with which to conclude, and a few others. He wasn't exactly correct about it being the last ones, though.