Just ahead of Part Twenty-Four of our current Tale for Our Time, a reminder that, as part of the seventh-birthday observances of The Mark Steyn Club, we have a brand new weekly music show. Hope you'll want to check that out.
Agatha Christie's second novel - and the first to feature Tommy and Tuppence - is set against the turbulent and revolutionary politics of Europe after the Great War. In tonight's episode, The Secret Adversary is now racing towards its climax - and T&T's adventures have come to the attention of 10 Downing Street:
The Prime Minister tapped the desk in front of him with nervous fingers. His face was worn and harassed. He took up his conversation with Mr. Carter at the point it had broken off. "I don't understand," he said. "Do you really mean that things are not so desperate after all?"
"So this lad seems to think."
"Let's have a look at his letter again."
Mr. Carter handed it over. It was written in a sprawling boyish hand...
Has Tommy saved the day? Or are there still unknown forces out there to stymie him? Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Part Twenty-Four of our tale simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
One never knows what will tickle the fancy of Steyn Clubbers, but, after last night's mini-disquisition on Bradshaw's Railway Guide to Great Britain, Ireland and the Continent, some readers were left more confused than before. Jamie Marsh, a First Weekend Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club and my fellow Granite Stater, writes:
That's a fascinating story about the Bradshaw. I had never heard of it. It does sound like an old-school drink. Not something James Bond would order: "I'll have a Bradshaw, shaken not stirred."
More like an American industrialist or English man of action: "Give me a Bradshaw, make it a double, and damn it man get the Ambassador on line right away!"
But it's fascinating that it was (just) a book of train schedules. If a train changed its schedule, then the book was off and I suppose wasn't corrected until the next edition. Was this a cause of many delays at the train station?
To which Gareth Roberts, a fellow First Weekender from Isambard Kingdom Brunel country, responds:
I don't think the timetables changed often. If the trains were packed on Christmas Eve, the railway companies would try to put more trains on the next Christmas eve. Drawing up the timetables required a great deal of work.
Ah, but no. It's simpler than that. Because of the vital need to be up to date, Bradshaw was published monthly.
If you've a friend who might be partial to our classic fiction outings, we've introduced a special Mark Steyn Club Gift Membership. You'll find more details here.
See you back here tomorrow for Part Twenty-Five of The Secret Adversary.