The Copybook

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

655

© Espresso Addict, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Bread and Scorpions by Robert Dunlop

In 1846, Daniel O’Connell stood up in the House of Commons to draw attention to the Great Hunger in Ireland, and to plead for a swift response.

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656

© Kgbo, Wikimmedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Battle of Vienna by Colonel John Sobieski

With Christian Europe tearing itself apart over the Protestant Reformation, the Ottoman Turks saw an opportunity for Europe-wide domination.

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657

By Nicholas Chevalier (1828-1902), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Unbroken Amity by John Bright

The Foreign Office had a long tradition of regarding a strong Russian Empire as ‘not in the British interest,’ but John Bright saw only mutual benefit in it.

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658

Via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

A Dream of Independence by John Bright

In 1877, John Bright told a meeting of the Manchester India Association that he had wanted to put India on the path to independence nearly twenty years before.

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659

Photo by Elliott and Fry, from the National Portrait Gallery, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Repeal of the Corn Laws by John Bright

Richard Cobden realised that John Bright, overcome with grief after seeing his young wife die, needed something worthwhile to live for.

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660

By William Hole (1846-1917), via the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

St Margaret of Scotland from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

When Malcolm III, King of Scots, met Princess Margaret of Wessex, he knew at once that he had found a woman capable of setting an example to a whole nation.

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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

April 19 NS

April 6 OS

Will Adams : An Elizabethan mariner reaches Japan under terrible hardships, only to find himself under sentence of death at the hands of his fellow Europeans.
Our Songs Confess Thee Sovereign Lord : A hymn for the vigil of Easter, recalling Christ’s descent into the abode of the dead and his triumphant return.
Brightest Beacon : Christ’s cross promises to take away the fear of Judgment Day.
A Collect for Easter Day : A short prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, for the day of Christ’s resurrection.
The Gambler : Which well-known expression is Dr Johnson talking about here?
If I Had But Two Little Wings : Samuel Taylor Coleridge holds on to those precious moments when loneliness is a problem for tomorrow.
Red Eye : Reconstruct the speaker’s original words from these reports.
Responsible : Combine each group of ideas into a single sentence, in as many ways as you can.
Opposites : Suggest words that seem opposite in meaning to the words in this list.
Three of a Kind : For each of these things, think of three different varieties of it.
The Son of God Goes Forth to War : A hymn in praise of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
Peace Plan : Report this brief exchange between Anna and M. Pierre and Tolstoy’s War and Peace
Metaphors : Choose one of these words and use it metaphorically, not literally.
The Marks of a Tyrant : Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle explains what it is that defines a tyranny.
Scrambled : Rewrite these sentences so that they do not use the word ‘and’.
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