JULIAN BARNES Arthur and George *****

One of the best books I’ve read in years. I can’t recommend it too highly. It’s as gripping as a thriller, but has loads to say about how we know things and the difference between knowledge and belief - which keeps you thinking.

It's based on the true story of Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji, a half-Indian vicar's son and solicitor, brought up in this country. Their stories, from childhood on, are told in parallel.

When George is in his early 20s, in a time before Appeal courts, he is wrongly convicted and imprisoned for slashing horses. The police had been looking for evidence to convict him, because he and his family had been complaining about a series of anonymous letters and hoaxes and were seen not only as weird and different but also as troublemakers.

Conan Doyle, when he gets to hear about it is incensed and wants to prove George’s innocence.

But it's more than just an interesting plot. You really get to understand what makes these two totally different men tick and to realise that Conan Doyle, for all his insistence on using Holmes-like deductive powers, is as prejudiced and irrational as the police have been.