The Copybook

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

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967

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

George Pinto by Clay Lane

An innovative English composer who did not live to fulfil his extraordinary promise.

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968

From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Most Unkindest Cut of All by Clay Lane

Greek revolutionary Nikitarás gives his ungrateful men a sharp reminder of what really matters.

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969

From Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (1907), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Pandora’s Box by Clay Lane

After being outwitted once too often, Zeus decides to spite Prometheus by ruining the race of men.

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970

© jimmyweee, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Cuthbert’s Cordon by Clay Lane

A man steals a mother sparrow from her chick, but St Cuthbert isn’t going to let him get away with it.

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971

© Alexandru Baboş Albabos, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Cuthbert and the Wry Face by Clay Lane

A man who seems to have everything loses his good looks to a dreadful disease.

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972

© nottsexminer, Wikimeda Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Cuthbert and the Iron Grip by Clay Lane

A boy goes bird-nesting in Cuthbert’s church, and finds himself all in a heap.

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Clay Lane The Copybook
About Clay Lane nicholas@claylane.uk

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 22 NS

May 9 OS

The Wars of the Roses : A struggle between rival Royal Houses begins in 1455, after questions are raised about King Henry VI’s capacity to rule.
Kim’s Game : Test your memory with this mental agility game from the pages of Rudyard Kipling.
A Mechanical Miracle : The father of computing believed his machine held the key to some of life’s greatest mysteries.
Essential Nouns : Suggest nouns of essence, such as leadership or supremacy.
The Follies of Youth : RL Stevenson was of the opinion that wrongthink was better than groupthink.
Thick and Thin : Express each of these ideas as a single word.
Break : Explain what each of these common expressions means, and give examples.
Blind Guide : William Wirt recalls an overpowering sermon from a blind man in a little wooden chapel.
It’s All in the Delivery : Aeschines paid tribute to the oratory of his greatest rival — whether he meant to or not.
The Road to Ruin : George Berkeley warned that industry, not financial speculation, was the guarantee of a nation’s wealth.
Signs of Command : Suggest publicly-displayed commands, and say how many of them are sentences.
My Native Notes : Scotsman James Boswell always spoke good English when in England, but he was careful to leave a little Scots in.
Hidden Message : Reveal the hidden message in a letter, and write a coded letter of your own.
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