The following review was written by the author and retired psychiatrist, Sadru Bhanji and it was published in Transactions of the Devonshire Association (Vol. 141, p. 451, 2009):

Paul Spiring (comp.), The World of Vanity Fair by Bertram Fletcher Robinson (MX Publishing Ltd, London, 2009), ix + 300 pages, profusely illustrated in colour.  Softback.  ISBN 9781904312536.  £75.00, US$145.00.

The preceding review by Brian Le Messurier has drawn attention to Bertram Fletcher Robinson.  Arriving in Ipplepen as an adolescent and later buried beside his parents in the churchyard, Robinson is not only one of Devon’s lesser known writers, but paradoxically also one of her most controversial.  He was a close friend of Arthur Conan Doyle, and probably inspired the latter’s The Hound of the Baskervilles.  Some went further and postulated that Conan Doyle not only plagiarized Fletcher Robinson’s tales, but then murdered him to keep the matter secret.  In the end, common sense and legal advice prevailed and attempts to exhume and examine Fletcher Robinson’s body were abandoned.

Fletcher Robinson deserves to be known in his own right.  A prolific journalist, editor and author he produced many works of interest.  The book under review is devoted to his connection with Vanity Fair.  Founded in 1868, its main feature became the annotated caricatures of leading celebrities.  Fletcher Robinson edited Vanity Fair from 1904 to 1907, and may well have been responsible for the text accompanying the portraits published then and earlier.  On the other hand; despite its title, this book does not address directly Fletcher Robinson’s contributions to Vanity Fair.  Instead, reproductions are provided of his series of illustrated articles published in The Windsor Magazine in 1905-7 under the heading Chronicles in Cartoon.  This consisted of his classified and edited compilation of a selection of almost four hundred illustrations appearing in Vanity Fair between 1869 and 1906.  Any likely intention Fletcher Robinson had to extend and then publish the series as a book was thwarted by his untimely death on 21 January 1907.

This book is well-produced and nicely illustrated; but, it has to be said, expensive.  It should appeal to social and political historians, those interested in exploring backwaters of Devon’s literary history, and collectors of caricatures of Victorian and Edwardian celebrities.