The Copybook

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

1501

© Klaus-Peter Simon, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.

The Gordian Knot Clay Lane

Alexander fulfilled the letter of a prophecy and he did become ruler of the world, but it wasn’t quite fair.

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1502

© China_Crisis, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.5.

The Midas Touch Clay Lane

An ancient Greek myth about the dangers of easy wealth.

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1503

From the Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Caucus Race Lewis Carroll

Alice experiences for herself the very definition of a pointless exercise.

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1504

© David Pickersgill, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

‘The marriage cannot go on!’ Charlotte Brontë

The cup of happiness is dashed from Jane Eyre’s lips.

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1505

© Ray Stanton, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

The Peculiar Customs of Lilliput Jonathan Swift

The people of Lilliput are strangely small, but their ideas are bizarre in a big way.

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1506

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

King Henry II Clay Lane

The great-grandson of William the Conqueror, whose knights assassinated Thomas Becket and whose family harried him to an early grave.

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