It took me about a week to read this volume, and it became a very comfortable companion. I felt the three editors, men with uniquely close relationships with the life of Arthur Conan Doyle, were intelligent commentators on the material that hovered outside the actual letters, and made good decisions on what the reader needs to understand the text. I have read several biographies over a lifetime of study of Dr. Doyle's most famous creation, but I never before felt a real sense of kinship with the author. All knowledge had been perceived through the filter of each biographer's particular prejudices, not to mention the inavailability of much family material including these letters. Reading this book, I felt the full strength of his personality and the familial forces that had shaped his principles and politics. What's more, his sometimes puckish, sometimes ponderous sense of humor was demonstrated clearly to me for the first time.
Everything about the book -- the photographs and drawings, the clear and handsome style of each page, the careful index -- gave further examples of the intelligent, thoughtful decisions by its editors and publishers. Let me recommend this book.