Aurum's Agatha Christie Companion of 2005 was a sales success in both hardback and paperback, on both sides of the Atlantic. Now we follow up with a beautiful and lavishly illustrated book on one of the greatest and most enduringly popular literary characters of all time: Sherlock Holmes.

Illustrated throughout with more than 150 pictures - half in full colour - ranging from period engravings and book jackets to modern-day location shots and film stills from TV adaptations, this is a compendious guide to all the stories, their author and the enigmatic pipe-smoking creation at their heart.

Daniel Smith's witty and informed text provides plot summaries of every single Sherlock Holmes story, potted biographies of Holmes, Moriarty, Watson and of course Conan Doyle, and interviews with many original interviews with the actors who've played Holmes over the years.

This is a book aimed at both the Holmes aficionado and at the gift market - comprehensive without being nerdy, and nostalgic while also rigorously critical and not afraid to rank the better Holmes stories against the lesser.

Daniel Smith is a book publisher and author who lives in London.