Well, we have more great feedback from Stephen Fry who as you may remember got in touch with us back in March of 2021 with a passion to house the private Sir Arthur Conan Doyle collection at the Former Save the Portsmouth City Records Office.
This time around Stephen said;
“It may be that some people in public service in the UK are not aware of the enormous knowledge of, fascination with and just plain adoration of Sherlock Holmes and his creator Arthur Conan Doyle that grows and grows around the world year by year. Those in charge of Dickens, Austen, Rowling and Tolkien visitor attractions and collections will tell you just how much they add to their local communities by way of tourist footfall and income.
These days all towns and localities are racking their brains trying to find unique selling points for profile and tourism - Portsmouth should realise how lucky it is to be in a position to tell the story of Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes with a colour, detail and connection that no other locale can boast.
I fervently hope that Portsmouth City Council will seize the opportunity.”
Best wishes - Stephen Fry
Some really lovely words from Stephen but I am not sure if it is a lack of knowledge within the Public Services, IE the Portsmouth City Council that causes these issues, this one in particular.
It is that they are not connected with the people nor their desires and they are allowed to hide behind the local politicians who always seem to allow this to continue and they normally land up taking the blame for what goes wrong or just does not get done.
In all of our Deputations at the full Council Meeting in March 2022 we were not allowed to have our Deputations included if we mentioned Portsmouth City Council employees by name or even their job titles. These people who are entrusted with our Heritage stock are protected at all costs and as a result, they remain in their positions long-term regardless of the outcomes and they are never held accountable.
There has to be some change!
Stephen is a known English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer.
In 2011 he stared as as Mycroft Holmes in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and in February 2017, Audible released Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection, a complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, all read by Fry, who also narrated an introduction for each novel or collection of stories.
So his passion for Sherlock Holmes and all English authors and English heritage is to be desired, I wonder if he fancies a job in the Portsmouth City Council.