Throughout the Lockdown and the Permanent Abnormal that followed, the lights stayed on at SteynOnline, even as they flickered and dimmed elsewhere. The Mark Steyn Club is well into its eighth year, and we're very proud that this website now offers more free content than at any time in our twenty-two-year history. But we also provide some premium extras especially for our Steyn Club members, such as these nightly serialisations of classic fiction and our new weekly audio show.
Which brings us to our current tale, a thriller by Sapper set against the turbulent politics of the aftermath of the Great War. In tonight's episode of Bulldog Drummond, our hero is minded to go to Paris - and remember, this is the City of Light in its glory days, rather than a grim security-state of non-running TGVs, unconvincing trannies, miscellaneous horsemen of the Apocalypse, and legions of Marcel Marceau imitators reborn as club-footed breakdancers. Yet, notwithstanding the genuine charms of the French capital a century ago, Bulldog's Drones Club posse is disinclined to get going:
"Now, boys, what about Paris?"
"Is it necessary to go at all?" asked Peter.
"It wouldn't have been if the Yank had been sane," answered Drummond. "As it is, I guess I've got to. There's something going on, young fellahs, which is big; and I can't help thinking one might get some useful information from the meeting at the Ritz to-night. Why is Peterson hand-in-glove with a wild-eyed, ragged-trousered crowd of revolutionaries? Can you tell me that? If so, I won't go."
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Seventeen of Bulldog Drummond simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
Last night's acid-bath episode prompted several listeners to draw my attention to the case of John Haigh, England's so-called "Acid Bath Murderer", who was hanged in 1949. I was, as it happens, aware of Mr Haigh - yesterday's installment is illustrated with one of the crime-scene photographs from the case because the paraphernalia is not so different from that employed in our tale. However, more than one correspondent wondered if the acid-bath serial killer might not have been inspired by reading Bulldog Drummond. Could be. The character was still a pop-culture phenomenon when Haigh began his murder spree in 1943. And I was struck by the fact that, if this tale's choice of Godalming is an unlikely setting for acid-bath murders, Haigh disposed of his real-life corpses in his workshop just down the road at Crawley. So, in a sense, the fictional acid-bath killer was not just a forerunner but a neighbour.
Haigh was eventually put on trial even nearer to Godalming, in Horsham, where our friend Hugo Miller stood earlier this month in the UK election. Mr Miller did not win, but he did see off the Tory chap - not by employing John Haigh's methods, I hasten to add. He didn't need to: basically, the Conservative Party has spent the last fourteen years lowering itself into an acid bath and entirely dissolving itself.
If you enjoy me in audio, you might like to check out our still newish Serenade Radio Saturday show, On the Town. This weekend's episode finds me in an unusually sporty mood.
Membership in The Mark Steyn Club is not for everyone, but, if you've a pal who enjoys classic fiction, we'd love to welcome him or her to our ranks via the birthday present that lasts all year: A gift membership in the Steyn Club, which comes with access to our entire archive of Tales for Our Time, including Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Time Machine and many more. For more details on our special Gift Membership, see here. And please join me tomorrow evening for Part Eighteen of Bulldog Drummond.
