THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

George Edalji, the son of an immigrant from India, and a Scottish mother, raised in the Midlands, faced harassment from childhood.  However, George deals with his view of the world through reason and becomes an attorney.

Arthur Doyle, raised in an English home in Edinburgh, becomes a doctor and writer, producing the characters, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.

After a series of brutal animal killings, George subsequently becomes suspect, and is later arrested.  The police mispronounce his name, as does his attorney.  To his complete astonishment, the facts of his innocence, so patently clear, become muddled and George is convicted.

Years later, Arthur Doyle receives a package by post.   Arthur, though often requested to solve criminal cases, as does his Sherlock Holmes character, becomes so incensed by the injustice George Edalji endured, he decides to pursue the case.

The book, based on the true story between the two men, and Arthur Doyle’s work on the case, led to the creation of the Court of Criminal Appeal in England.