I have written several articles within this blog about recent messages that are claimed to be from Conan Doyle through a collection of Doyle's books from Roger Straughan's bookshelf.
I met Roger when organising my first open day at Undershaw and since then we have remained in fairly close contact. I often ask Roger whether any relevant messages have come through concerning the campaign and quite often he has one of two messages for me.
Roger continues: The first thing that I read was all about money - Arthur Conan Doyle was always practical! "....unless you can offer cash down instead of promises". "Alas, I have no money except these few shillings". Roger said that this was relevant but pretty obvious so he asked his bookshelf something more specific relating to Undershaw and read from another book an account of a delapitated house which the builder was very proud of: "Yes its not one of your twopenny-halfpenny blocks that looks as though they have been turned out by a machine at so much a dozen. It's a select house,Sir. There is style about it. Chinks! Why, yes, Sir I like chinks. They promote ventilation, and all good architects aim at that.....Holes in the roof? Well, it's an advantage to know when it's raining without going outside to look" (Uncollected stories p. 264)
A more recent message: Roger claims nothing specific from Doyle though he tried before sending an email to me and read "We shall deserve what is coming to us". Roger thought this maybe aimed at our efforts.
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