Programming note: Tomorrow, Tuesday, I'll be back on GB News for a full hour, sitting in for Nigel Farage at 7pm GMT, which is 2pm North American Eastern.
Meanwhile, for those of you who prefer me in non-visual formats, welcome to Part Two of The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie, our November audio adventure in Tales for Our Time. Steyn Clubber Ted Kumlander says:
This is the first Tale for Our Time that I have listened to and I must say Mr Steyn has a very eloquent style of narrating that I find most enjoyable. He has gained a loyal listener.
Thank you, Ted. If you seek something more obviously timely, do check out our brace of Orwellian adaptations - Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four - or even a contemporary inversion of a classic, retooled for our wretched times, by yours truly. Whatever your taste, we have plenty of other yarns in all genres over on our Tales for Our Time home page.
As to Agatha Christie, Elizabeth, a First Fortnight Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club from Florida, is fully on board:
This is great! This is my favorite Poirot in that it shows how Hastings and Poirot met. Also the reference to the Great War is not unnoticed. Fits with your Hundred Years Ago Show. Can't wait to get into this! Thanks!
Hope it lives up to expectations, Elizabeth.
It is July 1916, and one of the most appalling battles in human history, the Somme, is underway just across the English Channel, with brutal daily casualties for Britain and the entire Empire, from Newfoundland to South Africa. Yet in tonight's episode of The Mysterious Affair at Styles Mrs Inglethorp is doing her bit with an entertainment at the village hall:
The 16th of July fell on a Monday. It was a day of turmoil. The famous bazaar had taken place on Saturday, and an entertainment, in connection with the same charity, at which Mrs Inglethorp was to recite a War poem, was to be held that night...
To hear me read the second episode of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, please click here and log-in. If you missed Part One, you'll find that here.
~Tales for Our Time started as an experimental feature we introduced as a bonus for Mark Steyn Club members, and, as you know, I said if it was a total stinkeroo, we'd eighty-six the thing and speak no more of it. But I'm thrilled to say it's proved very popular, and and we now have quite an archive. If you're a Club member and you incline more to the stinkeroo side of things, give it your best in the Comments Section below.
We launched The Mark Steyn Club well over four years ago, and I'm truly grateful to all those members across the globe who've signed up to be a part of it - from Fargo to Fiji, Vancouver to Vanuatu, Cook County to the Cook Islands, West Virginia to the West Midlands. If you've enjoyed our monthly Steyn Club audio adventures and you're looking for a present for a fellow fan of classic fiction, I hope you'll consider our special Club Gift Membership. Aside from Tales for Our Time, The Mark Steyn Club does come with other benefits:
~Exclusive Steyn Store member pricing on over 40 books, mugs, T-shirts, and other products;
~The opportunity to engage in live Clubland Q&A sessions with yours truly;
~Transcript and audio versions of The Mark Steyn Show, Mark's Mailbox, and our other video content;
~My video series of classic poetry - the latest airs this Sunday;
~Booking for special members-only events such as The Mark Steyn Christmas Show (if such things are ever again permitted by law);
~Advance booking for my live appearances around the world (see parentheses above);
~Customized email alerts for new content in your areas of interest;
~and the opportunity to support our print, audio and video ventures as they wing their way around the planet.
To become a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and don't forget that special Gift Membership. As soon as you join, you'll get access not only to The Mysterious Affair at Styles but to all our other audio adventures.
