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

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1531
Jemima Fawr and the Last Invasion of Britain by Clay Lane

French revolutionaries in a fleet of four ships attempted to spark a revolution in Britain.

In 1789, the French toppled their monarchy with a bloodthirsty revolution. Its leaders could not stand idly by, however, while their near-neighbours groaned under the heartless oppression of King George III.

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1532
The Return of Plum Pudding by Clay Lane

The Puritans said it was unfit for God-fearing men, but George I thought it fit for a King.

The Sunday before Advent is known as ‘Stir Up Sunday’, after the opening words of a Church prayer on that day. Appropriately, it is also the day for stirring up your Christmas plum pudding.

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1533
John Playford by Clay Lane

In England’s brief but dismal experiment as a Republic, Playford saved traditional English dance music from destruction.

For eleven years, 17th century England experimented with being a republic. Unsurprisingly, elected politicians turned out to be just as corrupt and oppressive as unelected ones, and but for John Playford, they would have robbed us of the country’s musical heritage.

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1534
The Miracle of St John of the Caves by Clay Lane

The story of an unexpected escape through the heart of a hill.

This tale is not as far-fetched as it may sound. The hills about and the ground beneath the chapel of St John are riddled with spectacular caves and passages leading away from the church.

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1535
Season of Goodwill by Clay Lane

‘Goodwill’ was on everyone’s lips, but the Roman Emperor and the God of Israel had very different ideas about it.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the ancient birthplace of his distant ancestor King David. He would have been born in Nazareth, had Joseph not been summoned to Bethlehem to swear loyalty to the Roman Emperor.

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1536
The Disaster of the White Ship by Clay Lane

The loss of the heir to the throne threw England into crisis.

William Adelin was the only male heir to the throne of his father, King Henry I. On a journey back from France in 1120, William was lost at sea, throwing the country into turmoil.

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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

June 1 NS

May 19 OS

Dmitri of the Don : Grand Duke Dmitri of Moscow loosened the grip of the Tartar Horde on the people of Russia, but treachery robbed him of triumph.
Lost Innocence : In the fourth century, Britain’s Christians acquired a taste for watering down the mystery of their message.
Leslie Howard : Howard gave his life to saving the ‘great gifts and strange inconsistencies’ of Britain’s unique democracy.
The Glorious First of June : Admiral Lord Howe battered a French fleet far out in the Atlantic, and helped prevent the spread of bloody revolution.
The Coronation of Anne Boleyn : The weight of the crown that Anne Boleyn wore proved too heavy to bear.
Peggy’s Dog : Some lines from the comic verse of Thomas Hood, for reading aloud.
An Interruption : Report this conversation without using direct speech.
Tender Plants : Prince Albert regretted the destructive power of the Art Critic.
Lost for Words : Join these ideas together into a single sentence, using ‘although’ or ‘though’.
Loan Words : Match these words to the language they come from, whether Old Norse, Malay or Welsh.
Evidence : Join these ideas together to form a single sentence, using the relative pronoun ‘who’.
Fatal Vow : Robert Pierrepont called heaven to witness that he would never pick a side in the Civil War.
Lost and Found : What would you in these difficult situations?
They Might Not Need Me : Read these lines of verse out aloud.
The Turn : Ben Jonson tells us how we should measure a life well lived.
Music Video : Julius Benedict, Piano Concerto in E flat: II. Andante,
The Character of George Washington : Thomas Jefferson recalls the virtues (and a few faults) of the first US President.
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