Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Pashadizel, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.
The great Dr Johnson argues that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
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© Mstyslav Chernov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Two frantic parents implore St Nicholas’s help in rescuing their baby boy.
© Chris-Downer, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
For Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Christmas was a time to let the dead past bury its dead.
© Martin Addison, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Elizabethan adventurer Sir Francis Drake combined sailing round the world with really annoying the King of Spain.
© David Dixon, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
The sounds of an English country Christmas helped Tennyson in his deep mourning for an old friend.
© Stefan Bauer, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.5.
By Divine providence, the shocking murder of Good King Wenceslas led to a flowering of Christian faith in Europe.