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This Friday, 22 May, will be the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Scottish writer Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), creator of one of the most celebrated detectives in literature: Sherlock Holmes.

Born in 1859 in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, into a catholic family of Irish roots, Arthur Conan Doyle went to a Jesuit school before going on to study medicine, a profession he practiced until 1891.

That year his life changed dramatically after he decided to dedicate himself fully to writing. His literary output includes historical novels, plays, poetry, war chronicles as well as his memoirs, entitled 'Memories and Adventures' (1924).

However, what catapulted Conan Doyle to worldwide fame was the creation of Sherlock Holmes, the main character in four novels and 56 short stories. Holmes first appeared in 'A Study in Scarlet', published in 1887.

The character of Holmes, considered to be the first whose methods were science-based, contrasts with the fascination Conan Doyle had for paranormal phenomena. After the death of his son Kingsley in the First World War (1914-1918), the author became a fierce defender of spiritualism, a doctrine that claims it is possible to communicate with the spirits of the dead by means of a medium.