Just ahead of Part Eleven of our nightly audio adventure, a reminder that this weekend I'll be launching a new music show on Serenade Radio, every Saturday at 5pm British Summer Time/12 noon North American Eastern. This weekend's music special - with me and a couple of chums live at Hillsdale - went down a treat with viewers. Michael Seth, a Steyn Clubber from New Jersey, says simply:
Now that's entertainment. Thank you.
Brian Warner, a First Hour Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, agrees:
You and your collaborators were absolutely fantastic, Mark. Hearing a writer of your talents discuss lyrics is always a matchless experience. It was a thoroughly enjoyable hour for two of your stumblebum fans!
That "stumblebum" is a reference to a Dorothy Fields lyric I discussed in the show.
No stumblebums, we hope, in Agatha Christie's second novel, The Secret Adversary. Rather, it stars two plucky English adventurers, Tommy and Tuppence, on the trail of globalist coup-plotters in London. However, in tonight's episode our brace of Brits are ably assisted by a millionaire Yank, Julius P Hersheimer, to whom it falls to follow one of the gang to the seaside town of Bournemouth. I expect there are more Albanians than Americans in Bournemouth these days, but in the Twenties it was undoubtedly agreeable (see illustration above) - although perhaps a little tame for New York millionaires:
"We got to Bournemouth all right. Whittington took a cab and gave the name of an hotel. I did likewise, and we drove up within three minutes of each other. He hired a room, and I hired one too. So far it was all plain sailing. He hadn't the remotest notion that anyone was on to him. Well, he just sat around in the hotel lounge, reading the papers and so on, till it was time for dinner. He didn't hurry any over that either.
"I began to think that there was nothing doing, that he'd just come on the trip for his health, but I remembered that he hadn't changed for dinner, though it was by way of being a slap-up hotel, so it seemed likely enough that he'd be going out on his real business afterwards.
"Sure enough, about nine o'clock, so he did...".
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Eleven of The Secret Adversary simply by clicking here and logging-in.
Marc, a First Day Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, writes from Florida:
It warms my heart to hear Mark Steyn performing with such vigor. One would not know his travails listening to this delightful Tale. May he regain his full strength to prevail against his real world enemies.
Not sure how real what passes for "the real world" is these days, Marc. We like both reality and fictional fancies here at SteynOnline, but there's nothing healthier than taking a short break from the hell of the hamster-wheel news-cycle and exploring the delights of our Tales for Our Time home page. It's configured in Netflix tile style, with the stories organized by category - thrillers, fantasy, romance, etc - which we hope will make it easy for you to find a favourite diversion of an evening. You can access over sixty cracking capers here - and all previous episodes of our current adventure here.
If you've yet to hear any of our Tales for Our Time, you can do so by joining The Mark Steyn Club and enjoy our nightly audio adventures every evening twenty minutes before lowering your lamp - or hoard the episodes and binge-listen at the weekend or on a long car journey, if your government still permits you to take one. For more details on that and other benefits to Steyn Club membership, see here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership.
Please join me right here tomorrow evening for another episode of The Secret Adversary.