Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson's Rucksack

My name is Arthur Pendrake, which I know sounds very British, but I?m actually an American living at the present time in the small village of Lavenham, a bit north of London. The millennials, if they knew me, would probably call me retro and they?d be right because I have always been enamored of the old days and ways. That would explain why I chose to buy a small cottage on the outskirts of Lavenham, a sleepy little hamlet with numerous lovely gardens and a funny little building that is trying to fall down, but remains propped up by the buildings on either side of it. I?m a freelance journalist who has made a decent, well, actually better than that, living hunting out stories of crime, corruption, sugary human interest, intrigue, and oddities of the past. More specifically, anything that I think some segment of the population might want to read about. More specifically than that, anything that I can convince someone to publish and pay me a few quid for my work. My dream, we all have them, has always been to publish my own magazine. I?ve tried books, but they take too long. If I invest a year of my life writing one and no one wants to read it, what do I have? Even magazines are a distinct risk, considering the incessant dumbing down of the reading portion of the world?s population. A writer can only hope to reach the dwindling numbers who do not want all knowledge delivered in ten second snatches on some form of electronic media.