sketchbook - the illustrious client part 1
The first part of THE ILLUSTRIOUS CLIENT, which is one of my favorite Holmes stories - you can read it here. Several more parts to come!
"Both Holmes and I had a weakness for the Turkish bath. It was over a smoke in the pleasant lassitude of the drying-room that I have found him less reticent and more human than anywhere else. On the upper floor of the Northumberland Avenue establishment there is an isolated corner where two couches lie side by side, and it was on these that we lay upon the day my narrative begins. I had asked him whether anything was stirring, and for answer he had shot his long, thin, nervous arm out of the sheets which enveloped him and had drawn an envelope from the inside pocket of the coat which hung beside him." I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP YOU GUYS
fun fact - We were in Harrogate a few years ago for the excellent comic convention Thought Bubble. It turned out that they have the oldest surviving Victorian era Turkish Baths, so Nate and I visited them. Complete with such details as a hot room full of cartoonists (the tattoos on display!), Turkish tiling by way of English imagination, and an original 'Crapper' toilet (google it). When I watched the Granada adaptation episode of The Illustrious Client, I immediately recognized the baths as the filming location! Very worth a visit if you are in the area.
I love the Victorian setting, but the bath scene just has my mind consumed with the idea of Holmes and Watson in the late 1970s NYC bath and spa culture, solving crimes and still rocking a fine 'stache.
The Victorian bath house sounds so nice, I'd like to go myself!