The Copy Book is an ever-growing library of short passages from history and literature, intended for practice in paraphrase and précis or simply for reading pleasure. They include brief summaries and eyewitness accounts of major events in our national history, and extracts from fables, poetry, plays, novels, political speeches and biography. Many were included by NL Clay in his anthologies of ‘straightforward English’.
We keep civil anniversaries on the New Style date, and Church events on the Old Style. See About our calendars.
Archive
What follows is an index to all 1576 posts in The Copy Book. You can keep up-to-date with new posts, and discover old posts you may have missed, with the Clay Lane Blog, where you will also find a selection of word games and exercises in grammar and composition.
The posts are currently listed most recent first. Use the buttons below to sort the posts alphabetically, or shuffle the list so you can find posts from right across the collection.
