� UNKNOWN ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
��� Like the great detective Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle also had many wonderful talents. Many people do not know that he wrote many other kinds of books: science fiction, historical adventures, horror stories and stories of the supernatural. He also wrote factual books on history and politics. In everything he did, he showed his incredible creative energy.
���� Conan Doyle came from an artistic family and he was a natural writer. His father was a,talented artist and his mother was a very good story-teller. In his autobiography Conan Doyle wrote: "The stories that my mother told me when I was a child stand out more powerfully than the real facts of my life."
����� Conan Doyle went to boarding school when he was nine years old. At school, he entertained his school friends with stories that he had invented. After graduation from Edinburgh University he had his own medical practice in London, but he did not have many patients, so he was not earning a lot of money as a doctor. That's why Conan Doyle made good use of his free time by writing stories. Soon, Conan Doyle began to have his stories published. He now began to understand that writing could provide a better income than medicine.
����� Conan Doyle was not satisfied with being just a writer of original and entertaining stories. He was also a great man of action. When he was a young man, he sailed as a ship's doctor on voyages to the Arctic and to West Africa. When the Boer War1 in Africa started, Conan Doyle volunteered to fight. He was not accepted because he was too old (he was 40). However, he still went to South Africa as a doctor to treat the wounded2
and the sick. He later wrote a history of the Boer War.
������ Conan Doyle was determined to do some good in society. He tried to enter Parliament, but he wasn't successful. Conan Doyle was more successful in his work to improve the law system. He worked very hard to help people who had been wrongfully sent to prison.
������ Conan Doyle did many things in his life, but he will naturally be remembered most
as a writer, a creator of Sherlock Holmes.
1 the Boer War [bəuə wo:] �����-������� �����
2 the wounded ['wu:ndid] �������
1. Read the magazine article and say in 2-3 sentences what it is about.
