The Copybook

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

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© Caroline Legg. CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings Rudyard Kipling

After the devastation of the Great War, calls rose for a new economic and social system, and to put the wisdom of our forebears behind us.

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© Țetcu Mircea Rareș, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic.

The Sacrifice of Isaac The Authorized Version

Abraham invites his son Isaac to accompany him to a nearby mountain to offer sacrifice, and the boy is naturally curious to know what gift his father proposes to offer.

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By Peter Lely (1618–1680), via the National Maritime Museum and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Secret Treaty of Dover Sir John Dalrymple

Months after promising England would help Holland escape the clutches of Catholic Europe, Charles II did a secret deal with France to sell out Holland and England together.

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National Library of Scotland, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

The Making of Tommy Atkins Sir George John Younghusband

In all his years of soldiering at home and abroad, Major-General George Younghusband had never heard British soldiers talk like those in Kipling’s tales.

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By Ernst Lissner (1874-1941), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Dmitri of the Don Lucy Cazalet

Grand Duke Dmitri of Moscow loosened the grip of the Tartar Horde on the people of Russia, but treachery robbed him of triumph.

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By Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873), via the Yale Center for British Art and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Rhetoric and the Beast Plato

God alone can save civilisation, said Socrates, when clever campaign strategists teach aspiring politicians how to play on the public’s hopes and fears.

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