Welcome to Part Twenty-Six of the latest audio entertainment in our series Tales for Our Time: my sequel to and contemporary inversion of Anthony Hope's Ruritanian classic of 1894, The Prisoner of Zenda. Mike Wolf, a Florida member of The Mark Steyn Club, likes it so far ...but with a qualification:
Mark, I am enjoying this immensely. The plot is full of twists and turns, and your writing as usual is clever, insightful, diabolically irreverent and hilarious.
I do wonder, however, if perhaps Rudy should have taken Wendy's offer when he had the chance. As Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord supposedly observed, long before MeToo of course, 'Women sometimes forgive a man who forces the opportunity, but never a man who misses one.'
There is a lot of truth in that, Mike, as I have had occasional cause to reflect over the years. Whether it is true for the peculiar circumstances of Rudy Elphberg and Wendy Rassendyll's relationship we shall explore further in the days ahead.
In tonight's episode of The Prisoner of Windsor, Rudy gives a blistering performance in the House of Commons, and the furor over Britain's most Islamophobic canine puppet comes to a head:
The BBC had announced that Colin Corgi had gone into hiding.'What does that even mean?' asked Belinda. 'They put him in a cardboard box and stick him in the attic?'
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Part Twenty-Six of our tale simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
I'll be back tomorrow evening with Part Twenty-Seven of The Prisoner of Windsor. If you're minded to join us in The Mark Steyn Club, you're more than welcome. You can find more information here. And, if you have a chum you think might enjoy Tales for Our Time (so far, we've covered Conan Doyle, H G Wells, Conrad, Kipling, Kafka, Louisa May Alcott, Scott Fitzgerald and more), we've introduced a special Gift Membership that lets you sign up a pal for the Steyn Club. You'll find more details here.