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Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.

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607

© 掬茶, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Cherry Tree by Joseph Longford

In the Great War, the Japanese were among Britain’s allies, and the Japanese cherry was a symbol of the courage demanded by the times.

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608

From the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Changing Face of Japan by Joseph Longford

Joseph Longford described how Japan had changed from the day he first joined the Japan Consular Service to the day he retired as Consul in Nagasaki.

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609

© Anil Kausalyayan, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

A Page Out of Pageantry by Ronald Wild

In 1932, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his accession, the Jam Sahib brought vanished days back to Nawanagar with a lavish hand.

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610

© james Petts, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Mrs Sancho’s Barometer by Ignatius Sancho

Ann Sancho would be in better health, said her husband, if she did not worry quite so much about him.

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611

From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Millionaire by A. G. Gardiner

In the year that Ranjitsinhji put aside his bat to concentrate on being the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar, journalist A. G. Gardiner looked back on his dazzling career.

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612

Photo by John Boyd (1865-1941), from the City of Toronto Archives via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Heartbeat by Metropolitan Police Commissioners

At the very centre of Sir Robert Peel’s idea of policing was the constable’s beat: a few streets, shops and families that he must know and care about.

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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 17 NS

May 4 OS

My Native Notes : Scotsman James Boswell always spoke good English when in England, but he was careful to leave a little Scots in.
Hidden Message : Reveal the hidden message in a letter, and write a coded letter of your own.
The Great and the Good : Daniel Defoe wondered whether goodness was not preferable to greatness.
Statements, Questions and Commands : Choose a word from our list, and then use it in any one of the three basic types of sentence — if possible.
Sentegrams : These sentences, taken from English literature, have been jumbled up like an anagram; see if you can piece them back together.
Good Sense : Rewrite these sentences so that the word ‘unless’ is not used.
The Coronation of Anne Boleyn : The weight of the crown that Anne Boleyn wore proved too heavy to bear.
Abstract : Use these words in sentences as a Noun, Verb or Adjective.
Better By Example : Gregory urged the persecuted Christians of Nazianzus to be the better men.
Speed Clues : Help a friend to guess five words in under a minute.
A Proper Game of Cricket : Mary Mitford makes an appeal for the traditional village cricket match.
Mini Bios : Write a short paragraph about a prominent person, but don’t start any sentence with he or she.
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