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Well, I've read a few Sherlock fics now, and sometimes it's – well – kind of obvious that the writer doesn't hale from this green and pleasant land. Which is good, because it would be pretty bloody boring (and overcrowded) if we all did, and Sherlock would never get his Sussex cottage and bees to retire to.
But…anyway, sometimes I notice little errors that suggest that London, Britain and the lifestyle of the average consulting detective and army-invalided doctor sharing a flat in Baker Street are not entirely familiar to the writer. I make no criticism – if you want to write an AU in which Sherlock and John are Californian college guys, by all means go ahead (and I'll probably read and enjoy it).
However, if you're the kind of person who likes to make sure their facts are reasonably correct, then I hope this article will help. Personally, if I were writing a fic about CSI: Miami, for example, I'd probably try to find out a bit about life in America to make sure my writing was 'authentic' and made sense in context. But I'm NOT criticising anyone who doesn't do that – honest!
I'm sure other people have covered this topic on here somewhere, so I apologise if I'm just repeating stuff. Also, some of it might not seem all that relevant to Sherlock, but then it depends on what you're writing about. I've tried to take into consideration kid!Sherlock/John or student!Sherlock/John fics as well as those that are more in-canon.
Anyway…read on! And please don't be offended – this is just a light-hearted look at some of the things that stand out as particularly non-British… and to highlight some of our idiosyncrasies.
This originally appeared on another fanfic site and I had loads of advice, questions and suggestions for additions from various readers, so to some degree this is a group effort. Any information I added that was not mine was acknowledged in that version, but for obvious reasons I have now removed the names of those individuals (in case they don’t wish to be named on another site).
I'm going to cover the weather (chapter 1), clothes (chapter 2), food/drink (chapter 3), the British health care system (and how John works) (chapter 4), the police (chapter 5), the education system (chapter 6), religion in Britain (chapter 7), media/communications (chapter 8) and common language/terminology (chapter 9). If anyone wants advice on any other area, please don't hesitate to ask. And also, if you’re British and think something needs correcting, please do say!
And, in true British style, we start with…
Chapter 1: The British Weather
First thing to note is that it's variable. Really variable. And it seems to bear no relation to the calendar month, which means it'll be pissing down with rain in June, freezing cold in August and blazing sunshine in October. The most important accessory you can have is an umbrella (that Mycroft is a clever chap). Having said that, London is usually one of the drier parts of the country (which probably won't mean much if you're from Arizona). Look, there's a reason why this country's so green.
Secondly, the variation in temperature is usually not that great. I mean, we might have a slightly thicker coat with a hat and gloves in winter, but thermal underwear and snow shoes are not normal requirements. And the summers are not (usually) all that hot – about 25 degrees C (77 F) is usually as good as it gets. By the way, I live on the south coast, so am used to a slightly warmer scenario; if you were in Scotland or on the north east coast of England, you would probably expect winters to be a bit colder than they are in Bournemouth (where I am these days) or in London.
Extreme weather that we don't tend to have:
Snow storms that take out the power lines in most of London and leave our heroes in the dark and cold, and forced to share body warmth with hilarious consequences (sorry guys, but we really don't).
Romantic snow at Christmas (apart from in Scotland and north England perhaps). Occasionally, if we're very lucky, we'll get about an inch of snow in January/February, and instantly all hell will break lose – schools will close, trains will stop, news bulletins will focus on happy kids sledging down hills and commuters will moan (but then they do that anyway). And no one knows how to walk on snow, so you'll see a lot of people falling on their arses, lining A&E (accident and emergency departments) with broken limbs and complaining because the council didn't foresee it and send out the gritting lorries the previous night.
Heatwaves. There was a famous one about twelve years ago, where the temperatures got up to around 38 degrees C, and we were entirely unprepared for it, hence a lot of elderly and vulnerable people died. Most Britons don't have air conditioning – it's seen as a waste of money, although some new-build houses might come with it included these days. Most of us just dig out our fans or mobile air conditioners if it comes to it. In their old-fashioned flat, Sherlock and John would just die. Or walk around naked and suck ice cubes off each other (but that's just your lurid imagination, so get your mind out of the gutter). But anyway, heatwaves don't happen that often and certainly not every year.
Electrical storms – we have them, but they're not that scary, and (again) they don't usually take out the power lines of greater London.
Extreme weather that we do have sometimes:
The only type of extreme weather we get is severe rainstorms and flash floods, but that’s usually more of a problem in the West and South West of the country, where it rains more. It doesn't tend to happen in London every year. Ironically, last year, there were some issues with flooding around the London area, e.g. in Surrey, but the city itself was basically unaffected, unlike parts of Somerset in the West country, where villages were quite literally cut off for weeks and had to have everything brought in by boat.
In fact, during the ten years I lived in London, I don't remember any exciting weather-related event that might inconvenience our heroes to a great degree. Sorry to disappoint anyone looking for a dramatic plot device…