‘A long stretch on shore’: Why a short halt in Colombo left a deep impression on Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer and creator of Sherlock Holmes, is universally known and acclaimed. But not every reader or fan of the Sherlock Holmes books would likely be aware of the personal religious and spiritual beliefs of the genius behind them. At a time when such views were, at least publicly, frowned upon in British society, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle began to become very vocal about spiritualism – the belief that living people can communicate with those who are dead.

When Conan Doyle began writing his serialised essays titled The Wanderings of a Spiritualist in 1921, he was in Ceylon. The essays would be compiled into a book a few months later. “I write these lines with a pad upon my knee, heaving upon the long roll of the Indian Ocean, just one shade greyer, lining the Eastern skyline,” Doyle wrote in the introduction.

The prolific writer came to the Emerald Island twice – on his way to and back from Britain to Australia. He was invited by what he called “spiritual bodies” to visit Australia in 1920.

Doyle wrote:

I had spent some never-to-be-forgotten days with the Australian troops at the very crisis of the war. My heart was much with them. If my message...

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