Programming note: If you missed today's Clubland Q&A live around the planet, the action replay will be posted soon.
Meanwhile, welcome to Part Six of our nightly audio entertainment - Bulldog Drummond by the pseudonymous Sapper, set in the sociopolitically turbulent times just after the Great War. Tonight's episode begins with our hero, unlike the lethargic security of Trump's rally, leaping into action:
The crack of the shot and the bursting of the only electric-light bulb in the room were almost simultaneous; and the next second, with a roar of "Come on, boys," he burst through the window. At an immense advantage over the others, who could see nothing for the moment, he blundered round the room...
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Part Six of our tale simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier installments can be found here.
One line in our opening episode unnerved several listeners:
He took off his pince-nez and laid them on the desk.
Josh Passell, a First Weekend Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, writes:
I know that's how it's pronounced, but when the Comte de Guy removes his pince-nez, I do start for a second.
Maggie, a Steyn Clubber from Pennsylvania, was similarly discombobulated:
I wanted to say that in the opening moments I was somewhat alarmed when it appeared that the hotel manager was taking off his trousers in response to the secretary's remark, but was relieved to hear it was only his eyeglasses that he removed.
For any other listeners thinking the hotel manager was going full Charlie Rose or Matt Lauer, I should say that pince-nez are a form of spectacles, but without the hinged arms to hook over the ears. Instead, they pinch (pincer) the nose (nez). Their heyday was brief, but they were at their apogee when this book was published in 1920 because the then US president, Woodrow Wilson, favoured them.
However, they are a big part of English detective literature of this period, and had been ever since the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez. So I became very familiar with the word as a voracious reader when young, and in fact spent my pocket-money on an old pair I came across in a junk shop one weekend. To the amusement of friends, I affected wearing them for a while, but they were rather strong and I kept walking into walls.
If you disdain literary pince-nez and you're in the mood for something more immediately dystopian of an evening, my serialisation of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four can be heard here. Its combination of violence and lies seems more relevant to today's America than it should be.
If you're minded to join us in The Mark Steyn Club, you're more than welcome. You can find more information here. And, if you have a chum you think might enjoy Tales for Our Time (so far, we've covered Conan Doyle, Baroness Orczy, Dickens, Forster, Conrad, Kipling, Kafka, Gogol, Trollope, L M Montgomery, Robert Louis Stevenson, Agatha Christie and more), we've introduced a special Gift Membership that lets you sign up a pal for the Steyn Club. You'll find more details here. Oh, and don't forget, over at the Steyn store, our Steynamite Special Offers on books, CDs, and much more.