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1567
The Tea-Cup Revolutionary by Clay Lane

Josiah Wedgwood, a village potter whose disability meant he could not use a potter’s wheel, brought about a quiet revolution in English society.

The rich have always had nice things; what changed in the eighteenth century was that, because of private enterprise and the industrial revolution, the poor started to share them too. Josiah Wedgwood was one of the pioneers who changed the lives of the poor for the better.

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1568
Too Clever By Half by Clay Lane

Mrs Tabby White thought she’d try some of the clever things her humans did.

Mrs White does everything she can for her kittens, but she can’t do what her humans do, and she starts to wonder if she’s a failure as a mother.

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1569
The Kitchen Cat by Clay Lane

Ruth Lorimer’s strangely comfortless life changes when she finds a scruffy little cat on the stairs, but not everyone is pleased.

Little Ruth Lorimer has nice toys and a nice house, but she is dreadfully lonely. Then one day a scruffy little cat brings some warmth into her life.

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1570
The Selfish Cat by Clay Lane

A tortoiseshell laments his hard life among heartless humans.

A tortoiseshell cat is chatting with a rather skinny grey cat. It is so difficult, he says plaintively, for a cat to find a proper home.

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1571
William I to John by Clay Lane

A quick overview of the Kings of England from William I in 1066 to John in 1199.

Below is a brief overview of the Kings of England from William the Conqueror, who seized the crown in 1066, to John, whose disgruntled barons forced him to sign the Magna Carta in 1215.

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1572
John to Henry IV by Clay Lane

A quick overview of the Kings of England from John in 1199 to Henry IV in 1399.

Below is a brief overview of the Kings of England from John, whose disgruntled barons forced him to sign the Magna Carta in 1215, to Henry IV, who pushed his cousin Richard II off the throne.

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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 30 NS

May 17 OS

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.
Amen to That : John Bright declared it was time stop fighting wars around the world for ‘British interests’.
Arena : Use these nouns in sentences of at least ten words in length.
Q & A :
Deep Harmony : In the midst of the US Civil War, a simple melody briefly brought the warring factions together.
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