The Mark Steyn Club was born over four years ago in May 2017, and one of the most popular features ever since the earliest days has been our series of monthly audio adventures, Tales for Our Time - and one of the most popular aspects of Tales for Our Time has been the music Mark chooses to accompany his serialization of each story.
In the case of our current tale, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, he was spoilt for choice - because, aside from being a great author, Miss Austen was also a pretty fair musician, with albums of favorite songs and piano pieces faithfully copied out in her own neat and precise hand. In this Tales for Our Time special for Steyn Club members, Mark introduces a sample from those albums - a tragic Gluck aria, a folk song of Irish virility, a sonata by the leading pianist of his day, a ballad for departing soldiers that Jane adapted for her seafaring brothers, and many more.
To hear this Tales for Our Time music special, simply click here and log-in.
If you're a devoted follower of Tales for Our Time, we hope you enjoy this musical bonus. If you're a Mark Steyn Club member who's missed one or two of our tales, we hope it will whet your appetite to take a prowl around the archive.
There's more music, of a very different kind, later today in Steyn's Song of the Week. Yesterday's special in remembrance of the late Leslie Bricusse prompted this from Marsha in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina:
I have just finished "Goldfinger", which has prompted me to send this. I just have to tell you how enjoyable it was hearing all the background on the song. As a Bond movie lover while in high school and college, I so enjoyed your anecdotes.
Thank you.
Thank you, Marsha. These weekend features are website-wise more or less unique to SteynOnline, and not much present on broadcast platforms these days.
On Monday there's a double dose of Steyn on UK radio and TV. He starts the day with the audio edition of Steyn's Song of the Week on Serenade Radio at 5.30am London time (that's 9.30pm Sunday on the US and Canadian West Coast). You can listen to the show from anywhere on the planet right here.
Mark ends the day with his first Brit telly appearance in decades, with Colin Brazier on the new GB News live at 8pm London time (that's 3pm North American Eastern). You can watch the show from anywhere on the planet right here.
