The Copybook

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

1093

By Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Twelve Poor Men and True Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens explains the thinking behind Jesus Christ’s choice of friends.

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1094

By Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Anne Ford Thicknesse Clay Lane

A young English girl in Dr Johnson’s London struggles to share her gift for music.

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1095

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

Birds of Paradise Cynewulf

Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf paints a word-picture of heaven and the seraph-band that swoops and soars before the throne.

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1096

From ‘Lenin’ (1930), by F.A. Ossendowsky, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Germany’s Secret Weapon Winston Spencer Churchill

As a last, desperate throw of the dice in the Great War, the Germans detonated an unusual kind of weapon in St Petersburg.

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1097

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

Much Ado About Nothing Clay Lane

Don Pedro’s brother John tries to ensure that the course of true love does not run smooth.

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1098

By Nikolay Koshelev (1840-1918), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain

Mountain of Light St Bede of Jarrow

St Bede says that Christ’s Transfiguration should remind us that we live in two worlds at the same time.

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