Welcome to Part Six of our nightly audio entertainment - The Flying Inn by G K Chesterton, set in an England in which the elites have made common cause with Islam.
Larry, a South Carolina Steyn Clubber, took a while to warm up to this one:
I wasn't immediately sold on this tale - but when Dalroy kicked those barrels of rum and cheese down the hill, I became interested. Then, after he roughed up the homeland security guys - I mean Ivywood's guys - and he and Pump took to the backroads, I was hooked. Currently, I am in 'lowering your lamp' mode, which I prefer to bingeing, but I have binged on numerous occasions (Psmith, Journalist a couple of times). See you in the P.M.
As they used to say on the BBC's Listen with Mother, Larry: Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin. Tonight's episode opens with Dalroy and Pump on the lam, but following the latter's rules on staying one step ahead of the coppers:
They tell you in London that Dick Turpin [top right] rode to York. Well, I know he didn't; for my old grandfather up at Cobble's End knew the Turpins intimately—threw one of them into the river on a Christmas day; but I think I can guess what he did do and how the tale got about. If Dick was wise, he went flying up the old North Road, shouting 'York! York!' or what not, before people recognised him; then if he did the thing properly, he might half an hour afterwards walk down the Strand with a pipe in his mouth. They say old Boney said, 'Go where you aren't expected,' and I suppose as a soldier he was right. But for a gentleman dodging the police like yourself, it isn't exactly the right way of putting it. I should say, 'Go where you ought to be expected'—and you'll generally find your fellow creatures don't do what they ought about expecting any more than about anything else.
Longtime listeners may recall that a variation of this advice in The Man Who Was Thursday greatly influenced the Irish nationalist Michael Collins.
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.
If 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 state violence and lies seems more relevant to Starmer's Britain than it should be.
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