Just before we go to this evening's episode of Tales for Our Time, let's take a moment to pray for President Trump who has apparently just survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. Mark will have more to say about this as the information unfolds.
Welcome to Part Two of Bulldog Drummond by Sapper, our latest audio adventure in Tales for Our Time and set amidst a globalist plot about to descend on England. Steyn Club listeners are glad to have another full-length serialisation as their audio Ovaltine every night. Mark's fellow Torontonian James Fulford writes:
I am delighted to see Bulldog Drummond make an appearance in Tales for Our Time. I've read a lot Sapper's books, and recommend Jim Maitland.
One thing readers may not realize is that McNeile used his service-connected pseudonym because he started writing when he was actually at the Front, and serving officers weren't allowed to write under their own names.
That's true. If I recall correctly, it was Viscount Northcliffe, proprietor of The Daily Mail and the first man to publish Captain McNeile, who came up with the nom de plume.
After yesterday's curtain-raiser in Switzerland, the action moves to London's Half Moon Street - or rather lack of action. Half Moon Street (see illustration above) is a very literary thoroughfare: James Boswell, biographer of Dr Johnson, lived there, as did Sax Rohmer, creator of Fu Manchu, and Lola Montez, legendary courtesan and rumoured lover of Alexandre Dumas. Francis Durbridge's detective Paul Temple had rooms in Half Moon Street, and so, briefly, did Agatha Christie - and Oscar Wilde made it the setting for the First Act of The Importance of Being Ernest.
But, notwithstanding such thrilling antecedents, Captain Hugh Drummond, DSO, MC, is finding Mayfair rather a bore after the excitements of the Western Front. And so, in tonight's episode, he has been driven to place an advertisement in The Times:
Demobilised officer finding peace incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate, if possible; but crime, if of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential. Would be prepared to consider permanent job if suitably impressed by applicant for his services. Reply at once Box X10.
And, if you're thinking, "Hang on, didn't we do this small-ad-in-The-Times shtick just a few weeks ago?", well, no, that was a completely different small ad:
Two young adventurers for hire. Willing to do anything, go anywhere. Pay must be good. No unreasonable offer refused.
In fact, we may make it a house rule that henceforth only capers that begin with a small ad in The Times are eligible for Tales for Our Time.
To hear me read the second episode of Bulldog Drummond, please click here and log-in. If you missed Part One, you'll find that here.
~If you seek alternative dystopias to the world after the Great War, 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.
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 about 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 seven 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:
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