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 newish weekly audio show.
Which brings us to tonight's episode of Mystery in White - a "Christmas crime story" by Jefferson Farjeon set in a warm and cosy English country house where new refugees from the blizzard outside come upon the midnight not so clear and distract everyone but an ailing chorus-girl:
Christmas crept in almost unnoticed. Only Jessie Noyes, ruminating on the couch by the hall fire, was conscious of the chiming of midnight. All the others, with the exception of Thomson who was still asleep, in the drawing-room, were engaged in various occupations upstairs, too absorbed to attend to the advent of the twenty-fifth. "I said, 'A merry Christmas,'" ran Jessie's diary, "but there was no one to hear me, unless you count that portrait on the wall. He seemed to hear me, in fact, he seemed to hear everything, but he didn't wish me a merry Christmas back, thank God. But after all I'd been through it wouldn't have surprised me much if he had, though I expect if he really had I'd have gone off pop!"
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Seventeen of Mystery in White simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
If you prefer our musical attractions, you might like to check out today's brand new seasonal episode of our Song of the Week, which takes in everything from the American Civil War to the Irish Republican Brotherhood to a German carpenter's apprentice.
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 Christmas 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 Mystery in White.
