This new edition of this excellent book has been carefully edited and the type reset to modern standards. It is not a facsimile reprint, many of which also reproduce marks and flaws in the text from the pages they are copied from, but has been completely freshly set and presented. The book contains the photographs that were included in the first edition, and has a foreword by Portsmouth historian Matt Wingett, putting Father Dolling's work in the context not only of its time, but also reflecting the modern state of the city. It is thus a unique work, faithful to the original, but presented...

"Why did the man who created Sherlock Holmes believe in ghosts?"

From early in his medical career, Arthur Conan Doyle was fascinated by the paranormal. As a young doctor in Southsea, he investigated sEances, telepathy and hypnosis and in 1887, the year of his first Sherlock Holmes novel, he became convinced of spirit communication.

Even as Holmes's fame grew, Conan Doyle investigated poltergeists, automatic writing and spirit photography. Then, in 1916, as the Great War's death toll mounted, he announced to an astonished his belief in Spiritualism, all the while, continuing...