Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Alexander Hoernigk, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Don Pedro’s brother John tries to ensure that the course of true love does not run smooth.
Read
By Nikolay Koshelev (1840-1918), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain
St Bede says that Christ’s Transfiguration should remind us that we live in two worlds at the same time.
© Christine Matthews, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Henry VII must decide how to deal with a boy calling himself ‘King Edward VI’.
Bodleian Collections, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Sir Walter Scott warned that schoolchildren must not expect to be entertained all the time.
By Friedrich August von Kloeber (1793-1864), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Everyone wanted to know who Beethoven’s favourite composer was.
Unknown Artist, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
In 1837 William Sterndale Bennett, then regarded as England’s most exciting young composer, made history in quite another... field.