The Copybook

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

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

A Solemn Duty Ann Radcliffe

Monsieur St Aubert falls seriously ill on a walking tour with his daughter Emily, and before the end asks an unexpected favour.

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1112

© Jonathan Billinger, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

The Economic Case for Sovereignty Adam Smith

A nation with its own laws and a strong sense of shared cultural identity makes good economic sense.

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1113

By Domenico Angelo (?1717-1802), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Fairly Honest Lawyer Rafael Sabatini

Andre-Louis Moreau lives for vengeance on the master swordsman who killed his friend.

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1114

Anonymous, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

‘The Overland Mail’ Rudyard Kipling

A tribute to the postal workers of British India, and to the kind of empire they helped to build.

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1115

By Vasily Vereshchagin, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Sneeze of History Leo Tolstoy

It was the opinion of Leo Tolstoy that even Napoleon was never master of his own destiny.

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© Anthony O’Neil, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Big Spenders Adam Smith

Adam Smith warns that politicians are the last people who should lecture the public about how to run their affairs.

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