Sherlock Holmes and the Kent Railways

Kelvin I. Jones has been a prolific writer for a quarter of a century. Born in Kent in 1948, he is one of that rare breed who is equally at home writing poetry, plays and, above all, novels. He has published six books about Sherlock Holmes and the only study on Conan Doyle's interest in spiritualism, as well as numerous articles about the Victorian detective (see R De Waal's Universal Sherlock Holmes, online edition, 2000). Ed Hoch, the renowned American crime writer, has said of his Sherlockian work: "Kelvin I Jones reveals a sensibility and knowledge of 19th Century literature that extends far beyond the world of Sherlock Holmes." (Introduction to Sherlock and Porlock, Magico, 1984). He is also the author of many supernatural stories, among them Carter's Occult Casebook, about a psychic Edwardian detective. Of his gothic tales, Francis King, the novelist and critic, has written, "(Kelvin's work) piquantly suggest the work of a modern M.R. James." (Introduction to Twenty Stories.) His work is also cited in Ramsey Campbell's Meddling With Ghosts (2002) where he is described as one of the 'James gang.'