Sherlock Smiley
"You should be retired now George, keeping bees somewhere."
shareDid Sherlock Holmes ever get around to keeping bees? I thought he fell to his death at the Reichenbach Falls while grappling with Moriarti in those fictional pages of the Strand Magazine. Somehow, I don’t see George Smiley, the Chelsea pensioner, fitting into the rural scene. As a barely competent photographer, I doubt if beekeeping would be a practical pastime for him. Any thoughts, anyone? Perhaps we take them too seriously – after all, they are fictional characters and the product of ingenious authors!
shareWhen he turns up in The Secret Pilgrim, he seems to have settled in to the life of a retired academic in Cornwall. When Ned asks Guillam about Smiley, Guillam tells him:
George had bought this cottage in North Cornwall somewhere, he said, and was indulging his dislike of the telephone. He had some kind of sinecure at Exeter University, and was allowed to use their library.
Later, when he sees Smiley:
“Well, well, Ned. How do you like being a schoolmaster?”share
“How do you like retirement?” I countered, with a laugh. “I’ll be joining you soon!”
Oh, he loved retirement, he assured me. Couldn’t get enough of it, he said wryly; I should have no fears of it at all. A little tutoring here, Ned, the odd paper to deliver there; walks, he’d even acquired a dog.
Exactly the life Le Carre' took up in retirement. Though he still writes, obviously. I was fortunate enough to meet the man on more than one occasion, as I used to walk my dog on the coast path behind his house. (Cornwell lives in South West, not North, Cornwall.) Charming chap.
shareDid Sherlock Holmes ever get around to keeping bees? I thought he fell to his death at the Reichenbach Falls while grappling with Moriarti in those fictional pages of the Strand Magazine
You need to brush up on your Holmsian knowledge. share
Person with a very silly name (Miarse!!!), please do enlighten us groundlings - there's a good lad.
shareHolmes returned from the Reichenbach falls, there is a whole part of the canon dedicated to this, starting with "The Adventure of the empty house". In "His Last Bow", Holmes has retired to a small farm on the Sussex Downs. He has taken up beekeeping as his primary occupation, producing a Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen.
shareSee "Mr Holmes"
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