- Born
- Died
- Birth nameAlan Peter Arnold
- Alan Arnold was born in 1922 in Hendon, Middlesex, England, UK. He is known for Brazil (1985), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return to Oz (1985). He died on August 29, 1987 in London, England, UK.
- When he wrote the novelization of Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), he included British spellings like colour; he also makes reference to names and philosophers that might be lost on a young audience, and uses the word lovemaking, which is unusual in a novelization based on a family film. He also dedicated three chapters (42 pages) to Egyptian history. In the book, Watson wrote up Young Sherlock Holmes as an adult in Kensington. Arnold consulted these books before writing the novelization: A Thousand Miles Up the Nile; Arabian Sands; A Search in Secret Egypt; Napoleon to Nasser; The Penguin Guide to Ancient Egypt; Flight Through the Ages; Grand Hotel - The Golden Age of Palace Hotels, etc.
- [from the acknowledgments in his novelization of Young Sherlock Holmes] My feeling throughout has been one of the deepest respect for the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, for the creator as much as for his creations. I share with the purists an admiration for Holmes's qualities. One that is sometimes overlooked is that he was a Victorian and Edwardian gentleman. "We live in a utilitarian age", he once told Watson. "Chivalry is a Mediaeval conception". But, then, he was as much the great detective as he was the Mediaeval knight. That is how I think of him.
- [from the acknowledgments in his novelization of Young Sherlock Holmes] Although there have been many so-called Sherlock Holmes "pastiches", no-one can make the attempt without devoting study to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. In doing so one gains a respect for them and their creator which is quite profound. I cannot adequately describe their ability to suspend one's disbelief; it is a form of magic. They are myths which linger in the consciousness. They are for handing on to new generations who inevitably become, in turn, devotees. If this narrative is held to have integrity, it will encourage the process. That thought was in the eyes of the men who made the film. Along with the actors, they all respected the creator of Sherlock Holmes. I drew on other sources. Although in my youth I lived in Cairo, I was not then sufficiently mature to appreciate its wonders or to learn much about its incomparable history.
- [when consulting five different historical texts before writing the novelization for Young Sherlock Holmes] These five books guided me through its (Cairo's) antiquity and across its desert sands.
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