Medium – Book
About the Book – The comedians Barry and Bob Cryer have ‘discovered’ the memoirs of Mrs Hudson, the long-suffering housekeeper of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. The diaries trace Mrs Hudson’s thoughts from the arrival of her tenants to their supposed date of her death in 1914. We meet her as she deals with the odd habits of Sherlock Holmes, deals with the not altogether unwanted advances from the mysterious D.L. and paints the town red with her friend Hannah. A reading of the diaries shows a quick mind and the warmness that Holmes, at least, holds his old housekeeper in.
My Thoughts – As you may have gathered through a perusal of my reading matter, I love the stories of Sherlock Holmes. I find them funny, engaging and they engage me in a way that some modern fiction doesn’t – though happily, I have had a run of five-star books over the last couple of weeks that I have really enjoyed. I also love good Sherlock Holmes pastiches and fanfiction, and have even written some myself. However, I can’t honestly say that Mrs Hudson’s Diaries is good Sherlock Holmes fanfiction. Firstly, the humour. I am sure that many people may find it funny, but I just found that it fell a bit flat. Lots of awful puns, odd happenings which don’t seem to have much bearing on any narrative and strange happenings (such as Holmes and Watson playing a Christmas Party game which involves them jumping backwards down a corridor with their trouser legs rolled up).
The authors also included what seemed like random pictures, which didn’t really seem to pertain particularly well to Mrs Hudson or the diaries – I think they were an effort to ‘place’ Mrs Hudson in context but instead I found them out of place. One of the things that I disliked the most though was the difference between the Holmes and Watson of the Conan Doyle stories and those of the book here. Holmes is sympathetic to a point, but Watson seems to be constantly in a bad mood, seems to have had a falling out with Holmes later in life and doesn’t seem to care overmuch about Mrs Hudson. I don’t think there are any pointers to this in the original stories. I’m currently listening to the whole canon read by Stephen Fry and Watson is generally good humoured, kind and fairly cheerful! In conclusion, if you want a good book about Mrs Hudson, read the ‘Sherlock Holmes & Mrs Hudson’ books by Martin Davies – they are more entertaining, fun and Mrs Hudson gets in on the detecting!
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