'Tis the season at SteynOnline: we have plenty of Yuletide delights over at the Steyn Store, including my latest book. And, if you really want to treat your beloved this Christmas, there's always a stateroom on the Queen Mary 2, which voyage will include a live-performance edition of a Tale for Our Time.
We also have a full slate of seasonal programming. Tomorrow we shall present the Christmas edition of Mark Steyn on the Town. You can listen as it happens from almost anywhere on the planet Saturday at 5pm UK/6pm Western Europe/12 noon North American Eastern by clicking the button at top right here.
Tonight, however, we present the fourth of this year's seasonal Tales for Our Time, and the seventy-seventh overall in our series of audio adventures that we offer as a bonus for Mark Steyn Club members and which every December turns to more festive fare.
Today's tale is a postscript to the last week's serialisation of Christmas at Thompson Hall, and by the same author - Anthony Trollope. Unlike Mr and Mrs Brown's comedy of errors, this short story is of the simplest construction - a quartet of characters plus Christmas morning service and (a very Trollopian device) a promissory note:
It was an ill-natured answer to give, made in the tone that was used, by a brother-in-law to a brother-in-law, in the hearing of the sister of the one and wife of the other — made, too, on Christmas Eve, when the married couple had come as visitors to the house of him who made it! There was no joke in the words, and the man who had uttered them had gone for the night. There was to be no other farewell spoken indicative of the brightness of the coming day...
To hear me read Not If I Know It, please click here and log-in.
We're still receiving comments on our prior Trollope tale, Christmas at Thompson Hall. Larry, a Mark Steyn Club member from the Carolinas, says simply:
I thoroughly enjoyed this Tale. As a person who has had his own share of embarrassing moments, I laughed out loud at Mrs Brown's shock in discovering that she had mustard plastered the wrong man. So funny.
Across the Atlantic, Alison, an English Steyn Clubber, felt similarly:
I was laughing out loud during this episode. MS playing an English matron has touches of Lady Bracknell.
We launched The Mark Steyn Club over eight-and-a-half years ago, and we're very touched by all those SteynOnline enthusiasts across the globe - from Fargo to Fiji, Vancouver to Vanuatu, Cook County to the Cook Islands - who've signed up to be a part of it. As I said at the time, membership isn't for everyone, but, if you've enjoyed bonus features such as our Steyn Club audio adventures and you're looking for a Yuletide present for someone special, we hope you'll consider a Christmas Gift Membership. Aside from Tales for Our Time, The Mark Steyn Club does come with 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 me, such as Wednesday's;
~Transcript and audio versions of The Mark Steyn Show, and our other video content;
~My video series of classic poetry;
~Priority booking for the annual Mark Steyn Club Cruise, and advance booking for other special appearances;
~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 don't forget that special Gift Membership. As soon as you join, you'll get access not only to Not If I Know It but to all our other audio adventures.
One other benefit to membership is our Comment Club privileges. So, if you regard this Christmas gift as one of those you hasten to exchange on Boxing Day, then feel free to comment away below.
For over seventy-five other Tales for Our Time, see here.
