Minis
Mini Copy Book

Each post in this section is a short précis (summary) of a passage in The Copy Book. All of them are in modern English. They are intended for students of English as a Foreign Language at Elementary Level.

Cynewulf

Annunciation

Cynewulf reflects on the mystery of the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Mary.

Length: 60 words

Lives of the Saints

The Blessings of Nicholas Mogilevsky

Passengers sharing Bishop Nicholas’s Moscow-bound flight found his blessings faintly silly — but that was when the engines were still running.

Length: 63 words

Liberty and Prosperity

The Grievances of the South

Victorian MP Richard Cobden believed British politicians supporting the slave-owning American South had been led a merry dance.

Length: 52 words

Liberty and Prosperity

Dixie on Thames

Victorian MP Richard Cobden offered a startling analogy for the American Civil War.

Length: 60 words

Liberty and Prosperity

The Reform Acts

Nineteenth-century Britain had busy industrial cities and a prosperous middle class, but no MPs to represent them.

Length: 114 words

Anglo-Saxon Era

The Battle of Brunanburh

Athelstan confirmed himself as King of the English, and also reawakened a feeling that all Britain should be a united people.

Length: 56 words