Meet the real-life Scottish surgeon who inspired Sherlock Holmes

Key points

• Medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris has written a new biography of Joseph Bell, the Edinburgh surgeon who inspired Sherlock Holmes. Bell taught Arthur Conan Doyle when Doyle was a medical student.
• Bell was known for diagnosing patients by their appearance, and he worked with police surgeon Henry Duncan Littlejohn on major 19th-century murder cases. In the interview, Fitzharris says Bell was more empathetic and family-focused than Holmes.
• The book, Sleuth-Hound: The Case of the Real Sherlock Holmes, traces the early development of forensic medicine.