Happy Thanksgiving to our American listeners. Notwithstanding statutory federal holidays, the lights stay on at SteynOnline: We shall have our Thanksgiving show, and on Black Friday, to mark the nineteenth birthday of SteynOnline, nineteen per cent off everything at the Steyn store.
Thank you for all your questions on today's Clubland Q&A. I'm sorry I didn't get to this one, from Fritz:
'Boris is one of a kind -- and a fantastic leader of the United Kingdom. He will go down as the best PM since Winston Churchill!'
-- from DJT's upcoming picture book, Our Journey Together ($74.99, or $229.99 signed).
Discuss.
Hmm. When it comes to PMs since Churchill, Boris wouldn't make the Top Five. Worse than that, if you saw him at the CBI this week, you'll know that BoJo has lost his mojo. We may talk about that on Friday's Mark Steyn Show at GB News.
Meanwhile, welcome to tonight's episode of our latest Tale for Our Time - my audio serialization of Agatha Christie's first published novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. At the Old Bailey, the Crown's witnesses are about to face a fearsome defence barrister:
Sir Ernest Heavywether, who was famous all over England for the unscrupulous manner in which he bullied witnesses, only asked two questions.
"I take it, Dr. Bauerstein, that strychnine, as a drug, acts quickly?"
"Yes."
"And that you are unable to account for the delay in this case?"
"Yes."
"Thank you."
"Heavywether" seems to be making rather heavy weather of the name for a prominent QC. Mrs Christie might have been better to go with Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, QC, the Tory Attorney-General (top right), whom Bernard Levin, in The Spectator, used to call Sir Reginald Bullying-Manner.
If you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club you can hear Part Eighteen of our serialization of The Mysterious Affair at Styles simply by clicking here and logging-in. All previous episodes can be found here.
~Membership in the Steyn Club is not for everyone, but it helps keep all our content out there for everyone - in print, audio, video, around the world, and hopefully changing a mind or two here and there. And, aside from Tales for Our Time, being a Steyn Club member does come with a few other benefits:
~Exclusive Steyn Store member pricing on over forty books, CDs and other items in the Steyn store;
~The opportunity to engage in live Q&A sessions with yours truly, such as today's;
~Transcript and audio versions of our video content, such as Mark's Mailbox and The Mark Steyn Show;
~Comment Club privileges;
~Our weekend series of video poetry and other specials;
~Advance booking for my live appearances around the world, if I'm ever again permitted to make any;
~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 world.
To become a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership. Once your chum is signed up, he or she will get full access to our entire archive of Tales for Our Time, including Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Time Machine, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and much more. For more details on our special Gift Membership, see here.
And do join me tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day in America, for the nineteenth episode of The Mysterious Affair at Styles.