Programming note: On Thursday I'll be back on radio with the audio edition of Steyn's Song of the Week, and this one's a corker. Please join me at 9pm British Summer Time - that's 4pm North American Eastern. You can listen from anywhere on the planet by clicking the button at top right here.
Meanwhile, welcome to Part Twenty of The Secret Adversary, the latest entry to our series Tales for Our Time. On this seventh birthday of The Mark Steyn Club, Steve from Manhattan, a First Fortnight Founding Member, wonders after last night's episode:
Why did these otherwise nasty Bolshie conspirators leave Tommy in possession of sufficient cash to pay for a refreshing stop at a Turkish Bath and then a full meal at a restaurant? I guess 1922 Bolsheviks were more accommodating than the modern day variants...
Fair point, Steve. In 1921, a Turkish bath in London cost approx half-a-crown, and an Aerated Bread breakfast would have been another shilling tops. If you're planning a coup to topple His Majesty's Government, maybe relieving Tommy of three-and-sixpence wouldn't have been a priority. On the other hand, it's hard to see why the heavy doing the guarding wouldn't have taken it.
Still, this was only Agatha Christie's second book, and the tiny details were not yet plotted within an inch of their lives. Recently, I read a detective novel by "Robert Galbraith" (that's J K Rowling in non-Harry Potter mode) and, in the equivalent of the Poirot-explaining-it-all-in-the-library moment, every casual aside of the preceding three hundred pages is accounted for. I rather like the young Mrs Christie's preference for just keeping things zipping along.
At any rate, Steve will be relieved to hear that, in tonight's episode of The Secret Adversary, Tommy - after that slap-up breakfast at the ABC - gets back to the Ritz and decides his priority is an even grander feast:
Tommy strolled into the restaurant, and ordered a meal of surpassing excellence. His four days' imprisonment had taught him anew to value good food.
He was in the middle of conveying a particularly choice morsel of Sole à la Jeanette to his mouth, when he caught sight of Julius entering the room. Tommy waved a menu cheerfully...
Sole à la Jeanette? Is that the preferred dish of every Agatha Christie protagonist? From The Mystery of the Blue Train, published in 1928:
'The brown lounge suit, sir? The wind is somewhat chilly today.'
'There is a grease spot on the waistcoat,' objected Poirot. 'A morceau of Filet de sole à la Jeanette alighted there when I was lunching at the Ritz last Tuesday.'
'There is no spot there now, sir,' said George reproachfully. 'I have removed it.'
I have never, to the best of my knowledge, seen sole à la Jeanette on any menu anywhere. The fact that both Tommy and M Poirot consume it at the Ritz suggests that Mrs Christie regarded it as a specialty of the house. But is it a real dish? It does not appear to exist on Google outside Agatha's oeuvre. But, if you've ever eaten it, let me know the recipe and we'll serve it at the next meeting of the Tales for Our Time book group.
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