Minis
Mini Copy Book

Extracts from Literature

Fricassée in France

In the opening lines of Laurence Sterne’s Sentimental Journey, the narrator explains the perverse whim that led him to leave his home shores behind.

Length: 59 words

Passages from the Authorised Version

Jailbreak

When Rhoda, maid to John Mark and his mother, said Peter was standing at the gate, nobody in the house believed her.

Length: 178 words

Georgian Era

Trouble at Belsize Gardens

In 1720, Welsh promoter William Howell opened a pleasure garden at Belsize House, but the pleasures drew the magistrates’ frowns.

Length: 164 words

William Cobbett

Judges’ Wigs

On a countryside ramble in West Sussex, William Cobbett finds the weather turning against him.

Length: 59 words

Canada

The Defence of Castle Dangerous

In 1692, a girl of fourteen was left to defend her father’s manor from angry Iroquois raiders.

Length: 180 words

Mediaeval History

The Voyage of John Cabot

On the Feast of St John the Baptist, June 24th, 1497, Venetian navigator John Cabot claimed North America for the King of England.

Length: 104 words