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

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907

© Derek Harper, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

The Missing Stair by Robert Louis Stevenson

David Balfour hopes his crusty uncle Ebenezer is beginning to soften towards him.

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908

© Țetcu Mircea Rareș, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

St Nicholas Scotches a Rumour by Clay Lane

Three highly decorated officers in the Roman Army fall victim to a campaign to discredit them.

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909

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

Recognition by John Buchan

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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910

© Țetcu Mircea Rareș, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

St Nicholas and the Unjust Judge by Clay Lane

Trouble comes to the town of Myra when Imperial soldiers are despatched to put down a revolt.

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911

Photo by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Lost for Words by Sir Henry Morton Stanley

Welsh journalist Henry Stanley is despatched by head office in New York to find a missing British explorer.

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912

© Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R29818, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Machinery of State by John Buchan

Human beings should not be frantic cogs spinning away in the Government’s factory of Progress.

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Clay Lane The Copybook
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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 9 NS

April 26 OS

A Gallant Attempt for the Crown : Only months after kidnapping the Duke of Ormond, Irish radical Thomas Blood was at it again, this time attempting to steal the Crown Jewels.
Russia’s Heroic Stand : In 1941, with much of the West subdued, Adolf Hitler bent the full force of his hatred on Moscow.
Repeat Offender :
In Two Minds : Join these ideas together to a form a single sentence, in at least two different ways.
The First Traffic Lights : The busy crossroads outside the Houses of Parliament was the testing ground for a new technology.
Good Companions : Explain what these wise classical authors are telling us.
The Rule of the Road : Being a free citizen doesn’t mean that everyone else has to get out of your way.
Blind Courage : George Santayana reprimanded politicians and military men who thought war was good for the country’s soul.
Patience : Make a single sentence out of these three ideas.
The Angel Cried : A hymn sung in the weeks after Easter, imagining how Gabriel brought the news of Christ’s resurrection to Mary.
She was a Phantom of Delight : Mary Wordsworth wasn’t pretty or bookish, but she was kind and vital, and William loved her.
Hardly : Tone down these bold assertions with ‘hardly’.
The Death of Julius Caesar : When Julius Caesar entered the Senate that day, a note warning him of treachery was clutched in his hand — unread.
Two Letters Home : A German soldier stopped the Great War so he could ask Captain Hulse to post a letter for him.
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