The Copybook

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

Blog

Copybook

Think & Speak

Games

KJV Bible

7

Dumbarton Oaks Collection, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Better By Example by Gregory Nazianzen

Gregory urged the persecuted Christians of Nazianzus to be the better men.

Read

8

© David M. Clark, Geograph. CC BY-SA 2.0.

A Proper Game of Cricket

Mary Mitford makes an appeal for the traditional village cricket match.

Read

9

By Antoine Vérard (fl. 1485-1512), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Batter My Heart by John Donne

John Donne gives God a free hand to do whatever needs to be done.

Read

10

© Tamara Menzi, Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

The First Traffic Lights from The Express

The busy crossroads outside the Houses of Parliament was the testing ground for a new technology.

Read

11

By Boris Grigoriev (1886-1939), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

The Rule of the Road by A. G. Gardiner

Being a free citizen doesn’t mean that everyone else has to get out of your way.

Read

12

Ministry of Information, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Blind Courage by George Santayana

George Santayana reprimanded politicians and military men who thought war was good for the country’s soul.

Read

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

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 19 NS

May 6 OS

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.
The Great and the Good : Daniel Defoe wondered whether goodness was not preferable to greatness.
Statements, Questions and Commands : Choose a word from our list, and then use it in any one of the three basic types of sentence — if possible.
Sentegrams : These sentences, taken from English literature, have been jumbled up like an anagram; see if you can piece them back together.
Good Sense : Rewrite these sentences so that the word ‘unless’ is not used.
The Coronation of Anne Boleyn : The weight of the crown that Anne Boleyn wore proved too heavy to bear.
Abstract : Use these words in sentences as a Noun, Verb or Adjective.
Latest

Clay Lane Home

Search

Blog

The Copybook

Think and Speak

Comfortable Words

Word Games

Featured Authors

Featured Subjects

Search The Copybook

About Clay Lane

Close Menu