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1537
The Fleming Valve by Clay Lane

A Victorian children’s book inspired the birth of modern electronics.

Sir Ambrose Fleming (1849-1945) was a Lancashireman who invented the vacuum-tube diode or ‘valve’, for fifty years the essential component of modern electronics.

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1538
Bird’s Custard by Clay Lane

Alfred Bird’s wife could eat neither eggs nor yeast. So being a Victorian, Alfred put his thinking-cap on.

Alfred Bird (1811-1878), a Birmingham pharmacist, did not invent egg-free custard powder to make a fortune (though he did), or because dietitians disapproved of eggs. He did it so he could enjoy eating pudding with his wife.

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1539
Treasure Island by Clay Lane

An excited English gentleman hires a ship for a treasure-hunt, but doesn’t check his crew’s credentials.

When a treasure-map falls into his excited hands, Squire Trelawny can’t wait to go treasure-hunting on distant seas. So he hires a crew of experienced sailors, without asking what kind of ship they gained their experience on...

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1540
The Alleluia Victory by Clay Lane

How hard-pressed Christians on the Welsh border won a battle without bloodshed.

In the 5th century, the spread of Christianity was a growing threat to the pagans’ hold of fear and ignorance over ordinary people. The pagans’ answer was (as always) violence.

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1541
The Hermit of Handbridge by Charlotte Yonge

King Harold died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Or did he?

Harold Godwinson was killed at the Battle of Hastings on England’s south coast in 1066, pierced through the eye by an arrow. But that wasn’t the tale they told up north in the city of Chester...

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1542
Edith and Edward by Clay Lane

A King and Queen gentler than the times in which they lived.

The powerful Earl Godwin, a rough Saxon and an ambitious man, gave his support to King Edward the Confessor on condition that he marry Godwin’s daughter Edith.

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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.
Britain’s Destiny : In a Christmas broadcast in 1940, actor Leslie Howard explained why British sovereignty was worth fighting for.
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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