Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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1549

The Story of Handel’s ‘Water Music’

Handel’s German boss fired the composer for spending all his time in London. When they met again, it was... rather awkward.

1550

The Story of ‘Messiah’

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

1551

The Story of ‘Oliver Twist’

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

1552

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.

1553

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.

1554

There is No Liberty without Self-Control

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