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.

Discovery and Invention

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.

Length: 54 words

The United States of America

The ‘Jay Treaty’

The Jay Treaty can be seen as the start of the ‘special relationship’ between Britain and America.

Length: 51 words

Character and Conduct

‘Better Habits, Not Greater Rights’

The extraordinary productivity and social mobility of the Victorian era is to the credit not of the governing class, but of the working man.

Length: 47 words

International Relations

Peace By Free Trade

The blessing of trade free from political interference was one of most important insights in British, indeed world history.

Length: 47 words

Liberty and Prosperity

No Dog Exchanges Bones with Another

How do we get the help of millions of people we don’t know? Only by trade.

Length: 57 words

Music and Musicians

‘Nimrod’

Edward Elgar suffered from depression, and ‘Nimrod’ is his token of thanks to the true friend who supported him through it.

Length: 59 words