The Copybook
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
The engineer put his own life on the line for the safety of his fellow-workers in the coal industry.
Cornish Professor of Chemistry and multi-award-winning scientist Sir Humphrey Davy invented a safety-lamp for mines in 1815; but up in Newcastle, colliery employee George (‘Geordie’) Stephenson (1781-1848) was already working on his own design – as if his life depended on it.
A misfit duckling grew up with rejection as a way of life, until he thought all hope was gone.
The Ugly Duckling is one of the best-loved of all the fairy tales of Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen, a contemporary and friend of Charles Dickens. Below you will find a very brief précis of the story, which reminds us that it’s not where you came from that matters, it’s where you belong.
The most important English-born composer of Handel’s day, known for his tuneful music and very busy diary.
Though little-known today, Charles Avison (1709-1770) led a busy life composing, teaching and giving daily concerts in North East England, justly gaining a reputation as the 18th-century’s finest English-born composer.