The Copybook

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

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967

© nottsexminer, Wikimeda Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Cuthbert and the Iron Grip by Clay Lane

A boy goes bird-nesting in Cuthbert’s church, and finds himself all in a heap.

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968

© Nickolas Totkov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Ring for Service by Charles H. Ross

A cat belonging to a Carthusian monastery in Paris gets a free lunch, but who is exploiting whom?

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969

© Rob Farrow, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Cuthbert, the Eagle and the Fish by Clay Lane

St Cuthbert reminds a young monk that the labourer is worthy of her hire.

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970

Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Press Pass by Samuel Smiles

Young inventor James Watt’s life in London was overshadowed by the perpetual fear of being snatched.

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971

By 1Chiki1, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Faraday al Fresco by Walter Jerrold

Michael Faraday’s tour of Europe included a ‘picturesque’ multicultural event on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.

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972

From the Imperial War Museums Collection, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Britain’s Jews by Clay Lane

After a thousand years of uneasy cohabitation, Edward I decided that there was no place for Jews in his Kingdom.

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Clay Lane The Copybook
About Clay Lane nicholas@claylane.uk

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 16 NS

May 3 OS

St John of Konitsa : Hassan slipped across to Ithaca because it was in British hands and the Turkish authorities on the Greek mainland must not know what he was going to do.
My Native Notes : Scotsman James Boswell always spoke good English when in England, but he was careful to leave a little Scots in.
Hidden Message : Reveal the hidden message in a letter, and write a coded letter of your own.
The Great and the Good : Daniel Defoe wondered whether goodness was not preferable to greatness.
Statements, Questions and Commands : Choose a word from our list, and then use it in any one of the three basic types of sentence — if possible.
Sentegrams : These sentences, taken from English literature, have been jumbled up like an anagram; see if you can piece them back together.
Good Sense : Rewrite these sentences so that the word ‘unless’ is not used.
The Coronation of Anne Boleyn : The weight of the crown that Anne Boleyn wore proved too heavy to bear.
Abstract : Use these words in sentences as a Noun, Verb or Adjective.
Better By Example : Gregory urged the persecuted Christians of Nazianzus to be the better men.
Speed Clues : Help a friend to guess five words in under a minute.
A Proper Game of Cricket : Mary Mitford makes an appeal for the traditional village cricket match.
Mini Bios : Write a short paragraph about a prominent person, but don’t start any sentence with he or she.
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