Francis Wheen
Francis Wheen
Francis James Baird Wheenis a British journalist, writer and broadcaster...
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth22 January 1957
arthur bottom conan fairies fell fictional finding great himself hoax invented keen later method occurred photos rational rest ridiculous sherlock
It occurred to me the other day that Arthur Conan Doyle invented Sherlock Holmes, one of the great fictional embodiments of the rational deductive method - finding evidence, observation and all the rest of it. Conan Doyle himself was, however, a keen spiritualist, especially in later life, when he also fell for these ridiculous hoax photos of fairies at the bottom of the garden.
bizarre change creation exact genome human immense mapping partial period scientific seems time
This is the bizarre thing. This exact period I'm writing about is also a period of the most extraordinary scientific and technological achievement, from the mapping of the human genome to the creation of the internet. It seems paradoxical that there should be this proliferation of mumbo jumbo at a time of such immense change and upheaval, but that may be a partial explanation for it.