Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Jmacleantaylor, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.
After one of the worst outrages in modern British history, Winston Churchill stood up in the House of Commons to label the Amritsar Massacre an act of terrorism.
Read
From the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
The British Tommy’s fondness for ‘Tipperary’ exasperated some of his countrymen, but ‘Alpha of the Plough’ thought it showed proper English spirit.
© Mark Kent, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
The mournful owl in her Sussex garden so troubled A. G. Gardiner’s friend that she rarely visited her house in the country.
© DrStew82, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh’s first attempt to found an English colony in the New World failed, but two years later he was keen to try again.
By Thomas Harriot (?1560-1621), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
In 1609, Englishman Thomas Harriot turned his new-fangled telescope on the moon, and sketched for the first time the face of another world.
By Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770), from the National Gallery of Art via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Standing on the dockside with Laertes, who is eager to board ship for Paris, Polonius takes a moment to share some fatherly wisdom.