This is an audio recorded reading from Chapter 1 of the 1930 novel Vile Bodies. In this scene, passengers are travelling on a ship across the English Channel from France to Dover, England. At the heart of the humorous scene is a sly Jesuit, Father Rothschild, and the entrepreneurial evangelist Mrs. Melrose Ape, along with her troupe of young women dressed as angels. Everyone is terribly concerned about the weather and sea sickness, except for Mrs. Ape. She believes singing is the cure for every ill.
Read by: Christopher Adam. The recording was produced at The Cave Recording Studios in Ottawa, Ontario. Sound engineer: Joey Boyer.
(The feature illustration is from the cover design of the Penguin edition of Vile Bodies published in 2000.)
That grisly evangelist with her troop of girls was based I think, on Aimee Semple MacPherson.