Sherlock Holmes is a government official. Mycroft has a unique civil service position as a kind of human database for all aspects of government policy. He lacks Sherlock's interest in physical investigation, however, preferring to spend his time at the Diogenes Club. Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate; his earliest cases, which he pursued as an amateur, came from fellow university students. A meeting with a classmate's father led him to adopt detection as a profession, and he spent several years after university as a consultant before financial difficulties led him to accept John H.
The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes: A Paper Chase The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes: A Paper Chase The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes: A Paper Chase is the title of a 2001 novel by Marcel Theroux. It was published in the United Kingdom in 2002 as The Paperchase. The protagonist is an Anglo-American journalist, Damien March, who inherits a dilapidated mansion in the United States on the death of his uncle, Patrick. Upon taking up residence, he discovers several short stories featuring Mycroft Holmes, which lead him to investigate the relationship between his father, mother and uncle. The novel was named the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award in 2002.