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.

Liberty and Prosperity

A Dream of Independence

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.

Length: 109 words

Liberty and Prosperity

The Repeal of the Corn Laws

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

Length: 117 words

Scottish History

St Margaret of Scotland

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.

Length: 117 words

American Civil War

The Gettysburg Address

Following a decisive victory in the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln urged his supporters to make sure that liberty’s advantage was not squandered.

Length: 112 words

American Civil War

The Battle of Gettysburg

Two years into the American Civil War, the Union army responded to a dispiriting defeat at Chancellorsville with a decisive and historic victory at Gettysburg.

Length: 115 words

Mediaeval History

The Battle of Lewes

The Battle of Lewes in 1263 took place just a few miles from the Battle of Hastings two centuries before it, and was arguably as important.

Length: 113 words