Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Philipp Reiner, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Richard Hannay reflects on the innocent lives lost, when the lust for power or the desire for revenge makes us less than human.
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© Nojos88, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Our hero is sent to deal with some man-eating birds, but cannot reach their lakeside refuge.
© Babbsack, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.
The saintly Bishop helped the captain of a merchant ship to cut through the red tape, and save his town from starvation.
© Walter Baxter, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
The Northumbrian saint warned of an enemy who would stop at nothing to silence the good news.
© Stephen Glauser, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
Jim Hawkins, on a remote desert island, has escaped pirates only to be caught by a shadowy figure among the trees.
© Rajesh Tripathi, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
Samuel Smiles reminds us that until we brought the railways to India, we had little to boast about as an imperial power.