The Copybook

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

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1549

© Derek Harper, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.

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.

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1550

© Wouter Hagens, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Too Clever By Half by Clay Lane

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

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1551

© John Lord, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

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.

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1552
The Selfish Cat by Clay Lane

A tortoiseshell laments his hard life among heartless humans.

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1553

Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

William I to John by Clay Lane

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

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1554

© Harland Quarrington, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Open Government Licence 1.0.

John to Henry IV by Clay Lane

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

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

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 8 NS

April 25 OS

VE Day : On May 8th, 1945, Winston Churchill took to the radio to tell the British public that almost six years of war were ended.
Repeat Offender :
In Two Minds : Join these ideas together to a form a single sentence, in at least two different ways.
The First Traffic Lights : The busy crossroads outside the Houses of Parliament was the testing ground for a new technology.
Good Companions : Explain what these wise classical authors are telling us.
The Rule of the Road : Being a free citizen doesn’t mean that everyone else has to get out of your way.
Blind Courage : George Santayana reprimanded politicians and military men who thought war was good for the country’s soul.
Patience : Make a single sentence out of these three ideas.
The Angel Cried : A hymn sung in the weeks after Easter, imagining how Gabriel brought the news of Christ’s resurrection to Mary.
She was a Phantom of Delight : Mary Wordsworth wasn’t pretty or bookish, but she was kind and vital, and William loved her.
Hardly : Tone down these bold assertions with ‘hardly’.
The Death of Julius Caesar : When Julius Caesar entered the Senate that day, a note warning him of treachery was clutched in his hand — unread.
Two Letters Home : A German soldier stopped the Great War so he could ask Captain Hulse to post a letter for him.
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