The Copybook

Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.

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1519

© Norbert Nagel, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.

St Nicholas and the Luckless Sailor by Clay Lane

After surviving a terrible storm, a crew-member on St Nicholas’s ship met with a tragic accident.

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1520

© milo bostock, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Queen Charlotte’s Christmas Tree by Clay Lane

Cromwell’s killjoys almost silenced the English Christmas, but thanks to a royal family tradition the message is still being proclaimed.

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1521

© ceridwen, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Jemima Fawr and the Last Invasion of Britain by Clay Lane

French revolutionaries in a fleet of four ships attempted to spark a revolution in Britain.

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1522

© Matt Riggott, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

The Return of Plum Pudding by Clay Lane

The Puritans said it was unfit for God-fearing men, but George I thought it fit for a King.

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1523

© Sara Guasteví, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.

John Playford by Clay Lane

In England’s brief but dismal experiment as a Republic, Playford saved traditional English dance music from destruction.

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1524

© Vitum, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Miracle of St John of the Caves by Clay Lane

The story of an unexpected escape through the heart of a hill.

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Clay Lane The Copybook
About Clay Lane nicholas@claylane.uk

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 21 NS

May 8 OS

The Spy : In 1910, Constantine Zervakos, a young monk from the Greek island of Paros, found himself charged with espionage.
The Miracle of St John of the Caves : The story of an unexpected escape through the heart of a hill.
The Peninsular War : Napoleon’s six-year-long campaign (1808-1814) to bring Spain and Portugal into his united Europe was frustrated by Arthur Wellesley.
Thick and Thin : Express each of these ideas as a single word.
Break : Explain what each of these common expressions means, and give examples.
Blind Guide : William Wirt recalls an overpowering sermon from a blind man in a little wooden chapel.
It’s All in the Delivery : Aeschines paid tribute to the oratory of his greatest rival — whether he meant to or not.
The Road to Ruin : George Berkeley warned that industry, not financial speculation, was the guarantee of a nation’s wealth.
Signs of Command : Suggest publicly-displayed commands, and say how many of them are sentences.
My Native Notes : Scotsman James Boswell always spoke good English when in England, but he was careful to leave a little Scots in.
Hidden Message : Reveal the hidden message in a letter, and write a coded letter of your own.
The Great and the Good : Daniel Defoe wondered whether goodness was not preferable to greatness.
Statements, Questions and Commands : Choose a word from our list, and then use it in any one of the three basic types of sentence — if possible.
Sentegrams : These sentences, taken from English literature, have been jumbled up like an anagram; see if you can piece them back together.
Good Sense : Rewrite these sentences so that the word ‘unless’ is not used.
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