The Copybook

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

187

© Christos Klearchos, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.

Christ is Risen! by Felicia Skene

Felicia Skene recalls the Easter celebrations on one emotionally-charged night in Athens

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188

© St Petersburg Theological Academy, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.

If Russia Gives a Lead by Herbert Bury

As war engulfed Europe, an Anglican bishop called on Russia to unite the world’s Christians around their veneration for the Bible.

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189

By Samuel Dukinfield Swarbreck (1799-1863), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Order and Method by Hugh Blair

Taking the trouble to express ourselves more clearly helps us to think more clearly too.

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190

By Apollinary Vasnetsov (1856–1933), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Timur in Russia by Clay Lane

Timur, Muslim lord of Samarkand, threw his weight behind the Golden Horde’s subjugation of Christian Russia, with unexpected results.

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191

© Richard Croft, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

An Excellent Performance by Thomas Platter

On a visit to England in 1599, Swiss doctor Thomas Platter found time to pop across the Thames and take in a show.

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192

© Joseph Mischyshyn, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Dane-Geld by Rudyard Kipling

Three years before the Great War, Rudyard Kipling recalled how one English king simply paid his bullying neighbours to stay at home.

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

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

April 25 NS

April 12 OS

The Life-Giving Spring : An obscure officer in the Roman Army gains a dizzying promotion after performing a simple act of kindness.
The Gallipoli Landings : By 1915, the Allies were struggling to break through Germany’s Western Front, and so began looking for another line of attack.
The Avengers : John Buchan was moved by the way the nations of the British Empire volunteered for service in the Great War.
A Tax on Companionship : William Windham MP was appalled at the idea of levying a tax on man’s best friend.
The Day of Resurrection : An eighth-century hymn of the Greek Church, for Easter Day
Saddled : Use these words in sentences, and see if you can use one of them as a verb.
Russia’s Heroic Stand : In 1941, with much of the West subdued, Adolf Hitler bent the full force of his hatred on Moscow.
Approachable : Replace the verb ‘can’ with these alternatives, and explain how the meaning of the sentence has changed.
The First Easter : In a translation from the Authorized Version of the Bible, published in 1611, St Mark recounts the discovery of Christ’s empty tomb.
A Collect for Easter Day : A short prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, for the day of Christ’s resurrection.
The Gambler : Which well-known expression is Dr Johnson talking about here?
If I Had But Two Little Wings : Samuel Taylor Coleridge holds on to those precious moments when loneliness is a problem for tomorrow.
Red Eye : Reconstruct the speaker’s original words from these reports.
Responsible : Combine each group of ideas into a single sentence, in as many ways as you can.
Opposites : Suggest words that seem opposite in meaning to the words in this list.
Three of a Kind : For each of these things, think of three different varieties of it.
The Son of God Goes Forth to War : A hymn in praise of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
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