The Professor's Mummy

Ferguson Wright Hume was born in Powick, Worcestershire on the 8th July 1859. When he was three the family emigrated to Dunedin in New Zealand. Here he started his education at the Otago Boys' High School before studying law at the University of Otago. Hume was admitted to the New Zealand bar in 1885. He moved to become a barrister’s clerk to Melbourne and once there also began writing plays. The local theatres were not interested in his works, and it was only after one was stolen and presented as being by someone else that his stock rose at all. Hume now moved in a different direction and wrote a novel based on those that were proving popular in Melbourne at that time. The result ‘The Mystery of a Hansom Cab’ with its vivid descriptions of poor urban life was initially self-published and became a great success, albeit that was only after he had sold the copyright for a mere £50. This Victorian age detective novel pre-dated Sherlock Holmes but is said to have inspired Conan Doyle. Shor