Douglas Kerr is a British writer and academic who is best known for his work on

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

and

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

Life and works

Kerr was born in 1951 in

Broughty Ferry Broughty Ferry (; ; ) is a suburb of Dundee, in Scotland. It is situated four miles east of the City Centre, Dundee, city centre on the north bank of the Firth of Tay. The area was a separate burgh from 1864 until 1913, when it was incorporated ...

, Dundee. Kerr went to school in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, where he started reading Conan Doyle and never stopped. He went on to read English at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

in 1969 before completing his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

comparative literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

Warwick University The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of a ...

in 1978. In 1979, Kerr travelled to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, where he had obtained an appointment as a lecturer in the Department of English Studies and Comparative Literature at the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...

. Over the next 38 years, he advanced his academic career in Hong Kong, appointed

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

and head of the English Department in 1996, associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts in 2002,

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of English in 2006 and Dean of the Faculty of Arts in 2014. Apart from his usual academic responsibilities, Kerr's publication record was prolific, and includes around 110 papers, articles and critiques, among them seven edited

scholarly The scholarly method or scholarship is the body of principles and practices used by scholars and academics to make their claims about their subjects of expertise as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly pu ...

volumes, and five monographs. His main academic focus has been on the literary history of the later Victorian era and the twentieth century, the literature of empire in Asia and its aftermath, and on cultural biography. Kerr's research interests also include the literature of war and of travel, the history of literary modernism, and

RGC RGC may refer to: * Radial glial cell * Receiver General for Canada * Retinal ganglion cell * Retro Game Challenge * Revolutionary Guard Corps * RGC 1404, a Welsh rugby union franchise * Rio Grande City, Texas * Robert Gordon's College * The Ro ...

-funded projects on Arthur Conan Doyle,

and on

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Eng ...

. Outside of academia, Kerr contributed to Hong Kong's English-language cultural life by reviewing books for the

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remaine ...

and hosting 60 programmes of a talk show, ''The Big Idea'', for

Radio Television Hong Kong Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service of Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Economic ...

on cultural, historical and scientific themes. He addressed conferences presenting

keynote A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework fo ...

speeches around the world, promoting excellence in written English with his wife Elaine Ho, also a literary academic. Kerr served on the board of directors of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival and became its chairman from 2009 to 2011, and participated in various

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

programmes featuring the work of

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen Military Cross, MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of Trench warfare, trenches and Chemi ...

, George Orwell and

Leonard Woolf Leonard Sidney Woolf (; – ) was a British List of political theorists, political theorist, author, publisher, and civil servant. He was married to author Virginia Woolf. As a member of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party and the Fabian Socie ...

. In 2017, Kerr left Hong Kong and is now living and working in the UK. He is the general editor of The Edinburgh Edition of the Works of Arthur Conan Doyle, an ambitious multi-volume project to publish scholarly editions of this author's principal writing in fiction and non-fiction, from the publisher of his ''

alma mater Alma mater (; : almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase meaning "nourishing mother". It personifies a school that a person has attended or graduated from. The term is related to ''alumnus'', literally meaning 'nursling', which describes a sc ...

'', the

Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh University Press is a scholarly publisher of academic books and journals, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. History Edinburgh University Press was founded in the 1940s and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh ...

. Kerr is also the editor of the first volume in the edition, ''Memories and Adventures'', Conan Doyle's autobiography, which has never been properly edited. Kerr continues to be engaged with scholarly editing as well as writing about the work of Doyle, Joseph Conrad, and Orwell. His latest book, ''Orwell and Empire'', was published 2022.

Books

* ''Wilfred Owen's Voices'' (Clarendon Press, 1993) * ''George Orwell'' (Writers and their Works series, 2003) * ''A Century of Travels in China: Critical Essays on Travel Writing from the 1840s to the 1940s'', co-edited with Julia Kuehn (Hong Kong University Press, 2007) * ''Eastern Figures: Orient and Empire in British Writing'' (Hong Kong University Press, 2008) * ''Conan Doyle: Writing, Profession, and Practice'' (Oxford University Press, 2013) * Arthur Conan Doyle, ''Memories and Adventures'', edited * Orwell and Empire (Oxford University Press, 2022)

Appointments

* 1994 - Visiting Scholar

Wolfson College, Oxford Wolfson College () is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Wolfson is an all-graduate college, it prides itself on being one of the most international colleges at Oxford, with part ...

* 2000 - Visiting

Research Fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a p ...

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

* 2005-6 - Honorary Research Fellow

Birkbeck, University of London Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a Public university, public research university located in London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the University of London. Establ ...

* 2009 – Hong Kong University Output Prize * 2011 - Elected Foundation Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities * 2014-15 - Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Hong Kong University * 2017 - Honorary Professor of English at Hong Kong University * 2018 - Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Arts, Birkbeck College, University of London

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerr, Douglas 1951 births Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of Warwick Academic staff of the University of Hong Kong British literary critics British biographers British literary historians Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes scholars Living people