During his work as a volunteer doctor in Bloemfontein during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), Conan Doyle related to a journalist that the Holmes story he "liked the best was the one about the serpent". Although he went on to write many more Holmes story after resurrecting Holmes from the Reichenbach Falls in 'The Adventure of the Empty House' (1903), Conan Doyle continued to regard 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band' as one of his favourite stories. He adapted it for the London stage in 1910. The session will explore this sensational detective story. Doyle blends detection with the Gothic to craft a tale of Empire and home, medicine and madness, domestic abuse and inheritance.