Behind the scenes with Richard Pooley, Director of the Conan Doyle Estate

The Conan Doyle Estate is formed from the family of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous author behind Sherlock Holmes. Alongside the family, a global network of experts and institutions provides specialist knowledge of Doyle’s life, adventures as well as many fictional characters. Today we take a look behind the scenes and catch up with Richard Pooley, who runs the estate. 

What are your family ties to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?

“I am his step-great grandson; his final child was Jean Conan Doyle. When my biological grandmother died in 1962 my grandfather went on to marry Jean 3 years later. As I was very young when my real grandmother died, Jean really took on the role as my grandmother. We were very close and she was a very successful woman, having retired as head of the Women's Royal Airforce. 

“When she died myself and my sister, Tania’s mother, were two of the nine beneficiaries of Jean’s will. So we, as her beneficiaries, now own the Conan Doyle Estate. My two fellow directors, Richard Doyle and Cathy Beggs, are respectively Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's great nephew and great niece.”

How does it feel being related to such a well-known and iconic author?

“I am often asked this question. I am in a bit of a difficult situation as although I run the estate, I am only related to him by marriage. However, I am fascinated by Doyle; he is a much bigger man than most people realise. He did not just create Sherlock Holmes. There are other great characters who, when Doyle was alive, were almost as famous - his favourite, Professor Challenger, and mine and Jean’s, Brigadier Gerard.   He was also a great campaigner, fighting injustice and arguing, among a host of matters, for divorce reform and better protection for British soldiers during the First World War. He would make a superb subject for a biopic, something the estate has been advocating for a long time.

What does a day in the life of an estate Director involve?

“If I’m honest, every day is different. I don’t spend every waking moment on it as I’m retired and have other calls on my time. I spend about 4 days a month actually working on estate business but the thinking time is probably twice that!

“Most of my time is spent working with our agent and legal advisers on licensing to companies around the world our remaining copyright ownership of Doyle’s works in the USA and the trademarks that we own in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger, Brigadier Gerard and Doyle’s less well-known fictional characters. We partner with film and tv companies, book publishers, exhibition organisers, advertising agencies, toy makers, clothes designers such as Tania...It’s a long list!

“An example of this would be our latest project with the luxury brand Montblanc, who are launching a series of pens celebrating Doyle the author, focusing in particular, of course, on Sherlock Holmes. Our agent and I sat down with the designer in London and discussed how the pen design could incorporate both Sherlock Holmes’ character and key elements of his fictional life . This is such an exciting project both for the Conan Doyle Estate, and for Sherlock Holmes Tartan who’s tartan will feature on the pen box. 

“As director of the estate I have access to many of the things which Doyle once owned and have been handed down within the family. During a recent attempt to do an inventory of some of these things, I found myself looking at the blotting paper left on Doyle’s desk at his death. There was his signature and several strings of words. Also boxes of letters that he had both written and received; it was fascinating.

“So as you can see, my work is varied and interesting. Some tasks are more fun than others but I really do love working with such an iconic brand.”

How has your role changed over the years? 

“In the beginning, a great deal of my time was taken up working on the copyright side of things. Thanks to a change made to US Copyright law in the last century, Jean and then her estate were able to benefit from the extension of copyright ownership of Doyle’s works and characters. Many of the Sherlock Holmes films and tv series of recent years - for example the Warner Brothers films with Robert Downie Jr - were licensed by us under copyright. The copyright on the last Holmes’ stories expires at the end of next year. So for the past few years I have spent most of my time building our portfolio of trademarks. 

“Another way in which my role has changed is the range of characters that I look after. Although Sherlock Holmes is extremely popular at the moment, like everything else, his popularity is cyclical. For me, it’s important that Doyle is appreciated for himself and as an author of a wide range of novels and stories, and that we build brands around the other characters he created and not just the late great detective who we all know and love. 

“We are quite often asked to work as consultants on a project, offering advice, for instance, to scriptwriters, authors of Sherlock Holmes’ pastiches, and manufacturers. The estate has access not only to its own archive but also to a huge group of people around the world who have  in-depth knowledge of the Sherlock Holmes stories and of Doyle himself.

Why do you think Doyle's work has remained so relevant and popular?

“But only one part of his huge body of work has remained popular! Sherlock Holmes. Are you, like so many, assuming Doyle and Holmes are one and the same? Perhaps your question is: Why do you think Sherlock Holmes has remained so relevant and popular? It’s the question I get asked most often by journalists, I even wrote an article recently to send to those who are asking.

“The fascinating thing about Sherlock Holmes is his observational methods. He is dispassionate and unemotional, logical to an extreme extent and is able to solve a problem through observation and rational deduction, and that is very satisfying to people. We live in a world where we aren’t in control of much and here is a man who seems to be able to control things. 

“Crucial also is his buddy relationship with Watson. As a normal emotional person, Watson is an unlikely companion for super-rational, cold Sherlock; yet it works. “I believe that seeing Sherlock and Watson’s relationship reincarnated in a variety of ways has had a significant impact on his popularity today.” 

How much input, if any, do you have when a production company creates a new film or show? 

“Nowadays relatively little, but when my step-grandmother, Jean, was still alive she did have a lot of input as she was quite protective of how Sherlock was being portrayed.

“Yes, thanks to the US’s generosity in protecting authors and other creative people from being ripped off, we own the copyright to Doyle’s works for a little longer, but we don’t really own Sherlock Holmes. The world owns him and has done so for decades, depicting him, Watson, Moriarty and others in all sorts of different ways.  We make it very clear to our licensees that we aren’t here to censor. What we do care about is quality, and the integrity of the Conan Doyle brand. 

“Many film and television production companies see value in getting our input. I myself, for example, will be a consultant on a TV series centred on a Doyle character (not Sherlock Holmes!) which we hope will go into production once the restrictions on filming caused by the Coronavirus pandemic are over.

“An interesting project that we have licensed, were consulted on and have hugely supported is an exhibition which has been going around the US and Australia for 7 years, which focuses on the science of deduction, the way that police forces investigate crimes and how Sherlock’s deductive skills have influenced their process.”

Do you feel protective over Sherlock and how he is portrayed in the media? How does it make you feel when he is misrepresented?

“No we can’t, or rather we shouldn’t. It’s important that people have the freedom to create their own Sherlock Holmes, or portray him in the way that they’d imagined when reading the books.” 

What is your favourite Sherlock Holmes quote? 

“There are so many that I enjoy. But if I had to choose one, it would have to be from A Scandal in Bohemia, “You see, but you do not observe” .”