Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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1513

The Story of ‘Messiah’

The first thing George Frideric Handel’s oratorio ‘Messiah’ did was to set a hundred and forty-two prisoners free.

1514

The Story of ‘Oliver Twist’

Fate and a vicious professional thief named Fagin conspire to trap orphan Oliver Twist into a life of crime.

1515

The Tale of Beggar’s Bridge

The proof of Thomas Ferres’s rags-to-riches tale is quite literally written in stone, but popular lore adds some tantalising and romantic detail.

1516

The Tea-Cup Revolutionary

Josiah Wedgwood, a village potter whose disability meant he could not use a potter’s wheel, brought about a quiet revolution in English society.

1517

There is No Liberty without Self-Control

Anti-Christian governments don’t make us free, they just impose their own, illiberal morality.

1518

Theseus and the Minotaur

A warning not to be forgetful of others, even in triumph.