Whose stories created Sherlock Holmes?

Arthur Conan Doyle, a Scottish physician, introduced Sherlock Holmes in the novel A Study in Scarlet, published in 1887. Doyle based the brilliant detective partly on Dr Joseph Bell, his university teacher, who could deduce remarkable facts about patients from small details. In total Doyle wrote four Holmes novels and 56 short stories, narrated mostly by Dr John Watson. Tired of his creation, Doyle killed Holmes off in The Final Problem in 1893, but public demand brought him back in The Hound of the Baskervilles and later stories. Holmes, who lived at 221B Baker Street in London, is one of the most portrayed literary characters in film and television history.