Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Colin Smith, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Just as Richard Hannay was steeling himself to report failure in the hunt for a German agent, a stranger’s eye caught his own.
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© Țetcu Mircea Rareș, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Trouble comes to the town of Myra when Imperial soldiers are despatched to put down a revolt.
Photo by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Welsh journalist Henry Stanley is despatched by head office in New York to find a missing British explorer.
© Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R29818, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
Human beings should not be frantic cogs spinning away in the Government’s factory of Progress.
By Gillis Hafström (1841-1909), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Arthur Huntingdon discovers that his wife is planning to leave him, and take their little boy with her.
© Thomas Quine, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
The Northumbrian monk was touched by two thieving birds who repented of their misdeeds.