Sherlock Holmes is a Yorkshireman, born and brought up on the North York Moors, but he spent much of his life at 221B Baker Street in London. He is more than a character from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's imagination. For many thousands of followers, he still lives in their minds through films, television, stage and radio plays, and written stories. Ever since Holmes first appeared in print, people have used the stories, together with knowledge of the culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to speculate about his life. They wanted more than the 60 stories in the Canon. This speculation is known as The Game, and has included the writing of pastiches, tales which his friend Doctor Watson, and others, might have written, but never quite got around to publishing. Until now. Born and brought up in Leeds, Robert Stapleton is now retired and lives with his wife in North Yorkshire. In early 2015, David Marcum invited him to send him a story he had written, to be included in a new book of Sherlock Holmes stories, to be published by Steve Emecz, in support of the Stepping Stones school project. Over the following few years, he has written further pastiches, including some published by Derrick and Brian Belanger. A selection from all of these publications has been included in this collection. "Come, Watson, come " cries Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Abbey Grange, "The game is afoot."
