Programming note: Tomorrow, Wednesday, I'll be hosting another edition of our Clubland Q&A taking questions from Steyn Clubbers live around the planet at 3pm North American Eastern - that's 8pm British Summer Time/9pm Central European.
~Thank you for all your kind comments on this latest Tale for Our Time. Debra Silver, a First Quarter Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, writes:
I am loving this gripping tale.... but even more ... the music is a piece I have adored for decades... thanks so much.
Thank you, Debra. In a certain sense, the choice of music is a bit counter-intuitive, but I have my reasons, as I may reveal as we approach our thrilling dénouement.
However, and well ahead of that, here we go with Episode Nineteen of Sapper's bestselling caper of 1920: Bulldog Drummond. In tonight's episode our hero spends a restless night at the Paris Ritz:
The new development which had come to light that evening was uppermost in his thoughts; and, as he lay there, covered only with a sheet, for the night was hot, the whole vile scheme unfolded itself before his imagination. The American was right in his main idea—of that he had no doubt; and in his mind's eye he saw the great crowds of idle, foolish men led by a few hot-headed visionaries and paid blackguards to their so-called Utopia. Starvation, misery, ruin, utter and complete, lurked in his mental picture; spectres disguised as great ideals, but grinning sardonically under their masks. And once again he seemed to hear the toc-toc of machine-guns, as he had heard them night after night during the years gone by. But this time they were mounted on the pavement of the towns of England, and the swish of the bullets, which had swept like swarms of cockchafers over No Man's Land, now whistled down the streets between rows of squalid houses....
And once again a fly pinged past his head.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Nineteen of Bulldog Drummond simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
We're now well into our eighth season of Tales for Our Time and have built up quite an archive. So, if you've a chum who's a fan of classic fiction in audio form, don't forget the perfect present: a Mark Steyn Club gift membership.
Please join me tomorrow both for Clubland Q&A and for Part Twenty of Bulldog Drummond.