A professor of English at the University of Regina, Dr. Nils Clausson, will be speaking in London, England, about writer Arthur Conan Doyle. Dr. Clausson has been invited by the Westminster Libraries as part of the celebrations throughout the United Kingdom marking the 150^th anniversary of the birth of Conan Doyle.

Clausson received his invitation primarily because of his published research on Conan Doyle in recent years, and as a result of the Arthur Conan Doyle International Symposium he hosted at the U of R last November. He became interested in Conan Doyle after teaching a course on the history of detective fiction.

"As a result of teaching Conan Doyle, I became aware that he was a much more sophisticated and complex writer than is generally acknowledged. He is perceived to be a popular author writing for a mass audience, rather than a literary artist. I am trying to correct that misperception."

This year also marks the 150^th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species, so Clausson's lecture will focus on the evolutionary themes in Conan Doyle's adventure/science fiction novel The Lost World. The title of his lecture is "Conan Doyle's Double-Coded Dinosaurs: The Lost World and the Art of Popular Fiction." It will take place on June 15 at the Mayfair Library in Westminster.

Clausson is writing a book - which is expected to be completed by the end of this year - in which he argues that Conan Doyle's fiction can be read the same way that we read literary fiction. His lecture in London will become a chapter in the book. Clausson will also be carrying out research for his book while he is in London.

For more information please contact Clausson before June 10 at his office at (306)-585-4427, at home at (306)-352-2919, or by email at Nils.clausson@uregina.ca.