Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
The Tragedy of the Korosko 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is one of the most renowned British novelists of all time, known popularly as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. He began writing in order to supplement his income while studying medicine at Edinburgh University, but attained instant popularity with his incredible detective fiction. After completing his medical degree in 1881, he set out on a whaling cruise to Africa, where he found inspiration and material for his 1898 novel, ‘The Tragedy of the Korosko’. This story recounts the trip of group of European tourists to Egypt in 1895, when they are suddenly abducted by a band of Dervish warriors. The westerners must choose between conversion to Islam or death, a scenario which Doyle uses to illustrate British Imperialism and the Imperial Project in North Africa at the time. The story is violent, realistic, and so popular that it was later adapted into a play by Doyle, and eventually adapted twice to film.