He was born in Edinburgh in May of 1859. His mother Mary was Irish, and could trace her ancestry back to the famous Percy family of Northumberland and from there to the Plantagent's line. As a result of this fact, the young Conan Doyle was introduced to many tales that reeked of historical knowledge, which gave him a good base to later write such novels as the ones listed earlier.
Life was fairly difficult for the young Arthur Conan Doyle. He was one of ten children, who were raised on the meager income of a civil servant, his father, Charles. Charles Altamont Doyle was the son of John Doyle, a famous caricaturist. Charles's brothers, which would be Conan's uncles, all had made a name for themselves: James wrote The Chronicles of England; Henry became the manager of the National Gallery in Dublin; and Richard became famous for being an artist. With all of this fame and appreciation for "the arts" that was floating around him, it is no wonder that Conan Doyle grew up to become a writer.
Charles Doyle had a few artistic talents as well, but chose only to use them as a spare time leisurely thing to do. Besides this, he had also lost his drive to work, which in turn resulted in the loss of his post in the Office of Works in Edinburgh. He slowly began turning to alcoholism as a means to drown his sorrows, which caused his epilepsy to become slowly worse. He was put in an institution for the last few years of his life until he died in 1893. The alcoholism of his father affected Conan Doyle