Welcome to the latest in our series of audio adventures, Tales for Our Time. This month's yarn was published 118 years ago, and is revived here because of its remarkable prescience: Lord of the World, by Robert Hugh Benson.
Some listeners enjoy our tales as a mug of nightly audio Ovaltine twenty minutes before they lower their lamp. Others leave it a few episodes to see if it's worth their commitment and then jump in for a big binge-listen. Either way, in tonight's installment, Percy finds himself back at Victoria Station in a wholly transformed capital:
As he stepped out at last on to the platform, he found it very much as he had left it two hours before. There was the same desperate rush as the car discharged its load, the same dead body beneath the seat; and above all, as he ran helplessly behind the crowd, scarcely knowing whither he ran or why, above him burned the same stupendous message beneath the clock. Then he found himself in the lift, and a minute later he was out on the steps behind the station.
There, too, was an astonishing sight...
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Part Ten of our tale simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
Thank you for your interesting comments on this latest yarn. Fran, a First Weekend Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, was especially appreciative of Joe Biden's very generous promotional tie-in for Mr Benson's tale:
Just when you think there's nothing about Joe Biden that can get weirder. When was the last time he knew what was going on anyway?
Good cliffhanger, in this episode. Very much enjoying the presentation. It's stories like this one that give my daydreams odd meanderings.
There are plenty of cliffhangers ahead, Fran.
If you have friends who might appreciate Lord of the World, Northanger Abbey, Nineteen Eighty-Four or our other tales, we have a special Steyn Club Gift Membership that lets them in on that and on all the other fun in The Mark Steyn Club. It makes a fun birthday present.
If you've only joined the Steyn Club in recent days and missed our earlier serials (Conan Doyle's The Tragedy of the Korosko, Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel, Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda, plus Kipling, Kafka, Dickens, Gogol, Louisa May Alcott, P G Wodehouse, G K Chesterton, Agatha Christie, H G Wells, Scott Fitzgerald and more), you can find them all on our easy-to-access Netflix-style Tales for Our Time home page. Indeed, it's so easy to access that we've introduced a similar format for our poetry and music outings.
The Mark Steyn Club is now in its eighth year, and, in an age when "platforms" cancel individuals and governments cancel platforms, helps keep all our regular content - whether in print, audio or video - out there in the world for everyone. In return, membership confers, aside from Tales for Our Time, a few other benefits:
~Exclusive Steyn Store member pricing on over 40 books, mugs, T-shirts, and other products;
~The opportunity to engage in live Clubland Q&A sessions with yours truly, such as this coming Wednesday's;
~Transcript and audio versions of The Mark Steyn Show and our other video content;
~My video series of classic poetry;
~Booking for special members-only events such as The Mark Steyn Christmas Show (if my woeful health permits);
~Advance booking for live appearances around the world, such as our next Mark Steyn Cruise;
~Customised email alerts for new content in your areas of interest;
~and the opportunity to support our print, audio and video ventures as they wing their way around the planet.
To become a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and please join Mark tomorrow for Part Eleven of Lord of the World.
