This page is an index to all 1613 posts in The Copy Book.
The Copy Book is an ever-growing library of short passages from history and literature, intended for practice in paraphrase and précis or simply for reading pleasure. They include brief summaries and eyewitness accounts of major events in our national history, and extracts from fables, poetry, plays, novels, political speeches and biography. Many were included by NL Clay in his anthologies of ‘straightforward English’.
You can keep up-to-date with new posts, and discover old posts you may have missed, with the Clay Lane Blog, where you will also find a selection of word games and exercises in grammar and composition.
The posts are currently listed in random order. Use the buttons below to sort the posts alphabetically, or to show the most recent additions first. You can also shuffle again.
Archive
2
As war engulfed Europe, an Anglican bishop called on Russia to unite the world’s Christians around their veneration for the Bible.
The reign of Edward VII (1901-1910) brought a thaw in relations between Britain and Russia, and when the Great War broke out in 1914, the two nations were allies on the battlefield. A year later, Bishop Bury (who had recently visited Russia) urged his fellow Anglicans to look to Moscow as their most natural ecumenical partner too.
Posted April 12 2023
3
Aubrey Herbert MP was called upon to make a speech to Albanians itching to avenge the crimes of neighbouring Montenegro.
In 1913, Aubrey Herbert MP rode through the mountainous country near Albania’s border with Montenegro. The locals in Rrapshë, exhilarated by the successful Albanian Revolt of 1912 against Turkey, were celebrating a festival, and amidst gunshots and denunciations of Montenegro’s historic crimes against Albanians they called on Herbert for a speech.
Posted March 11 2020
4
Nicholas used his inheritance to help three vulnerable girls escape a life of exploitation.
St Nicholas (d. 330) came from Patara in Lycia, now in south east Turkey. The following story is the basis of the ‘Santa Claus’ legend, but there is nothing whatever improbable about it; on the contrary, it fits perfectly with the society and values of pagan Rome at the time.
Posted December 7 2015
5
Abraham invites his son Isaac to accompany him to a nearby mountain to offer sacrifice, and the boy is naturally curious to know what gift his father proposes to offer.
The story of the sacrifice of Isaac seems troubling until it dawns upon us that Abraham risked his son’s life precisely because he knew Isaac was never in danger. The heartwarming tale stands as a rebuke to human sacrifice and to all evil done in God’s name, as a blessing upon the sacrifices of the Temple, and as a prophecy of Christ, the ‘lamb of God’.
Posted November 15 2020
6
An everyday act of charity triggered off a series of extraordinary events.
Alfred the Great ruled Wessex (roughly, southern and western England) from 871 to 899, but he had to reclaim it from Danish invaders first. The King had only a handful of loyal men to rely on, and was hiding out on a hill amid the Somerset levels, at that time a marshy lake.
Posted March 13 2015