William C. Honeyman – “The Violin Man”


William C. Honeyman, Sherlock

“The People’s Friend” Features Editor Alex recently sat down with DC Thomson Archives Assistant Barry Sullivan to discuss a big name in our magazine’s history: William C. Honeyman.

A talented musician and composer, Honeyman contributed to the “Friend” for many years around the turn of the 20th century. He wrote mainly advice columns — one musical, one love-related — where he doled out some pretty acerbic words of wisdom.

Known as both “The Violin Man” and “The Oracle”, Honeyman also served as an editor for some of our publications.

He also wrote some of the first detective fiction to be published in the country, and may have been the inspiration behind the UK’s most famous literary detective, Sherlock Holmes . . .

See the full interview below.

 

 

Earlier this month, Barry recently joined Editor Angela and Sub-editor Margaret on a quest to lay flowers at William C. Honeyman’s graveside. Find out more about their trip here.

Iain McDonald

Iain is Digital Content Editor at the "Friend", making him responsible for managing flow of interesting and entertaining content on the magazine's website and social media channels.