FAQs
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Looking for answers? We’ll add to this list whenever we’re asked something we think everyone might like to know.
1. Where did the name Aileen Adler come from?
(Asked by, who else, Aileen Adler!)
Aileen is named after Irene Adler, one of the few people to outwit Sherlock Holmes. Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World is short on good female characters. In Irene Adler, however, Conan Doyle created someone brilliant. Watson gives her a great introduction:
To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.
Read about Irene Adler’s exploits in ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’, the first short story in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
2. How did Watson get his name?
(Asked by lots of people.)
Watson is named after Sherlock Holmes’s faithful companion, Dr Watson. His name was chosen by visitors to www.thelostbook.net between 22 December 2008 and 23 January 2009. We asked for suggestions and about 90 names were put forward. The real-life Aileen Adler selected a shortlist of five names: Comet, Layna, Neptune, Tiggles and Watson. Finally, a sidebar poll gave everyone a chance to vote on the shortlist. Watson was the clear winner, with 43% of the vote.
We also held a vote on whether Watson is a boy dog or a girl dog. He’s officially a boy dog – 67% said that Watson is a “he”.
3. What is the book that has been stolen? (The “lost book”)
(Asked by lots of people.)
The stolen book is the journal of Sally Challenger’s 2004 expedition to Arthur Conan Doyle’s lost world. Sally Challenger is the great-great grand daughter of Professor Challenger from The Lost World.
You can find out more about the expedition in Jasper Fforde’s newspaper articles. We’re running a competition to recreate Sally Challenger’s journal: read the story so far or find out how to take part.
4. Who are the members of Sally Challenger’s expedition?
(Asked by M.J.)
• Sally Challenger – explorer, archaeologist, and descendent of Professor Challenger
• Howard F. Monroe – financier and adventurer
• Professor Catherine Remi – noted Belgian scientist
• Dr Marisa Ottero – internationally renowned archaeologist, University of Venezuela
• Captain Miles Carstairs – British Army – found dead on Saturday, 08 May 2004
• Major Ramón Pedilla – pilot, ex-Venezuelan air force and ex-boyfriend of Sally Challenger
Also in the Gran Sabana is another expedition group headed by Grazp Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and led by Angus McFaddyen, one of Ms Challenger’s harshest critics.
Find out more in Jasper Fforde’s newspaper articles, or in the story that is being written week by week.
5. Is Watson a spydog or undercover criminal mastermind?
(Asked by P4/5 Pentland Primary.)
No! We held a vote, and 81% said that Watson is a loyal friend to Aileen, not a criminal spydog.
6. Is Aileen based on you?
(Asked by everyone who meets Helen.)
Helen: You’ll need to ask Adam – he did the character design for Aileen. We’ve got similar hair and we both have freckles. She’s cuter.
Adam: Damn! You spotted it!
7. Who are Grazp Pharmaceuticals, Inc.?
(Asked by Tom)
We don’t know much about Grazp Pharmaceuticals yet. They sent a team into Southern Venezuela at the same time as Sally Challenger’s expedition. It’s reported that the team leader has seen Professor Challenger’s (Sally’s great-great grandfather) mysterious journals. Read more in Jasper Fforde’s articles about the expedition.
Grazp’s slogan, as seen on the side of buses in Iowa City, is “reaching out for you”.
The Lost Book is an animated web series where you wrote the plot.
