UPT Reps Newsletter

A young Sherlockian in Russia--photo by Tatiana Gomozova, UPT Rep, Russia

Greetings, everyone! The UPT Reps have been hard at work promoting Undershaw around the world. We would like to share with you some of the ways in which we have been spreading awareness of the plight of Undershaw and letting people know how they can help through UPT. We envision this newsletter as a medium to keep everyone informed about what is going on all around the world in the effort to save Undershaw. We will have four issues each year, going along with the seasons.

We have had a wonderful first response with reports from all our reps!  So much work is being done on behalf of Undershaw that we were unable to print all reports received in this first issue.  The Trust acknowledges everyone’s valuable help and encourages all to continue spreading the word. We hope to catch up on the reports for our next issue in June.

We will start with a report from Lynn Gale, co-founder of UPT. Lynn has some exciting news to share about a very significant event in May! From there we will go to our London rep, Rakshita Patel, and our other reps from countries all over the world. Please take a moment to read and see what amazing work is being done for Undershaw! All events organised are to raise awareness of the plight of Undershaw.

Your editors,

Jacquelynn Morris, ASH–UPT Rep, Maryland USA

Ricarda Schultchen–UPT Rep, Germany

UPT REPORT

The Hindhead Tunnel walk on May 14th is a fabulous opportunity for  UPT Supporters to walk  the 1.2 miles wearing ‘deerstalkers’ in a show of support for Undershaw.  The A3 Hindhead project will complete the dual carriageway link between London and Portsmouth, thereby removing a major source of traffic congestion, and by walking while wearing deerstalkers we hope to catch the Media’s attention to Undershaw’s plight.

Lynn Gale, Co-Founder, UPT

The London Report–from Rakshita Patel, UPT Rep, London

On Thursday 17 March 2011, UPT met the Sherlock Holmes Society of London at the Sherlock Holmes Pub. Items on the agenda included the aims for the UPT and Undershaw’s future, what UPT has achieved to date and ideas for raising awareness in the pipeline, how to further publicise the Save Undershaw campaign to the Society and how to mobilise the Society’s members behind the campaign. The meeting was very successful and productive; the Society left the meeting with a deeper awareness and understanding of UPT’s aims, objectives and work.

Guy Marriott, President of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and Roger Johnson, Editor of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London’s Journal, had our hot off the press UPT badges so that they could talk about UPT and promote our campaign at their meetings.

Other news from Ms. Patel:

• Richard Burnip, a London Walks guides and a professional actor, known as “Richard IV,” will be promoting Save Undershaw as part and parcel of his regular Friday walk, “In the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes.” Richard IV will be directing people to the UPT web site. He is now also the proud owner and wearer of an official UPT enamel badge.
• Sue Collier, Manager of the Sherlock Holmes Pub, is very supportive of the campaign to save Undershaw. They have agreed to carry all our flyers and promotional material. The pub is a mecca for Sherlock Holmes fans, so this is a huge win for us.
• John Riley, the Curator of the Sherlock Holmes Museum, supports the campaign to save Undershaw and has promised that the Museum will carry all our flyers and promotional material. Like the Sherlock Holmes Pub, the Museum is a popular destination for Sherlock Holmes fans from all over the world, which makes this another win for UPT! [UPDATE: There are now over 1,000 UPT flyers available at the Sherlock Holmes Museum!]

Russia Report—Tatiana Gomozova, UPT rep, Russia

Last month our Russian Representative Office (actually myself, some of my friends and other Sherlock fans) did a small promotion campaign at the independent publishers festival in Moscow. It lasted a long weekend and all 3 days we were there, explaining to visitors about the plight of Undershaw, with help of official pictures, letters and supporter’s videoclips. In addition, the visitors could play a Sherlock Quiz and receive a prize for every right answer–a matchbox with a picture of a Sherlock actor (Vasiliy Livanov, Jeremy Brett and so on). There was even a prize for a wrong answer! (Ginger cookies I made myself!)

We also promoted the Undershaw site: they could leave a message right there (with my laptop) or write some words on a large paper we had in our booth. And all day we showed Holmes series – Russian and the new BBC one – right there in our booth.

Have to say, it went extremely well! Many kind people were very interested and excited and told us they hope Undershaw will be saved from this awful development. I believe that during the fest we handed out 500 ‘flyers’ as well and have got about 10 sheets of paper with supportive messages for Undershaw. Many thanks to all my helpers! I could not have done this without you all.

We hope our next big step will be an exhibition in the library, but until then we’ll probably do something simple like handing out more flyers at the university and so forth.

Lithuania Report–Sigita Matulaityte, UPT Rep, Lithuania

I have created some promotional posts on my Tumblr site http://shaddicted.tumblr.com which is currently being followed by 427 people so far and got those posts reblogged by some very influential blogs in BBC Sherlock fandom. Also I have been working on an article in Lithuanian about Undershaw to get some attention from local Sherlock Holmes and ACD fans. I haven’t finished it yet, but I will do it in a couple of weeks and will send it out to popular bloggers and media sites, in the hopes that they’ll agree to post it on their sites.

Paris Report–David Rose, UPT Rep, France

I have contacted the Oxford University, Cambridge University, Edinburgh University, Dublin University and National University of Ireland Societies here asking them to pass on information to their members. I have also written to all members of the Société Oscar Wilde en France.  I have also followed this up on the VICTORIA and OSCHOLARSHIP listservs, and the 19thc LITERATURE e-reading group.  I have recruited Micheál O hAodha of the University of Limerick as Irish rep.

With a fair wind, I hope to interest the Modern Language Association in passing on the word to its 30,000 members. I have also set up an informal ‘French Friends of Undershaw’ mailing group so that I can keep in touch with respondents.

Two of my friends have independently suggested trying to enlist as many crime writers as possible; and one them will contact Alexander McCall Smith.  I have written to Elizabeth Foxwell, the editor of Clues, and to the Irish cultural attaché here.

Next on my hit list will be the Caledonian Society here (http://www.rampantscotland.com/features/societies.htm).

Japan Report–Nobuo Yamamoto, UPT Rep, Japan

I already tell it to the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club members (http://www.holmesjapan.jp/english/outline.htm). And I tweet them to twitter on Japanese.