The Copybook

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

853

© Andrew Smith, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

The Silent Hall The Exeter Book

An unknown Anglo-Saxon poet shares with us the grief of those whose homes and feast-halls were laid waste by Viking raiders.

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854

© José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Conversion of Saul Clay Lane

A fiery fanatic wins support for the suppression of Christianity in its very cradle.

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855

© Oliver Dixon, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Jackdaw William Cowper

A bird perched upon a church steeple casts a severe glance over the doings of men.

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856

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

It is a Beauteous Evening William Wordsworth

Walking with his ten-year-old daughter on the beach at Calais, Wordsworth considers the energy of God moving in all things.

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857

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

An Eye for Detail Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes turns to his brother for help when the case of a missing Greek proves unexpectedly troublesome.

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858

From PikiWiki Israel collection, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Frank Foley Clay Lane

A mild-mannered clerk in the British Embassy’s passport office in Berlin, just before the outbreak of war in 1939, was not all he seemed to be.

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