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541
The Emperor’s New Clothes by Clay Lane

A telling satire on fashionable thinking among the elite.

Why do fashionable ideas continue to circulate among the elite, long after ordinary people have realised that they are nonsense? Andersen’s folk-tale explains it brilliantly.

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542
The Cat’s Wedding by Clay Lane

It’s easier to change how you look than to hide who you are.

Originally, this story was about a weasel, an animal which the ancient Greeks kept for pest control in the way we keep cats. Modern Greek versions of this story make it a story about a cat, as did Victorian storyteller Joseph Jacobs.

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543
The Ape and the Fox by Clay Lane

A valuable lesson when dealing with practised liars.

If you are going to tell outrageous fibs, it is a good idea to do it when there is no one around to contradict you.

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544
The Goose with the Golden Egg by Clay Lane

Don’t get greedy when things are going well.

THE story of a man whose impatience and greed cost him everything.

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545
The Dog and the Bell by Clay Lane

Notoriety is often mistaken for fame.

A SPITEFUL little terrier with a penchant for nipping people on the ankle didn’t quite understand why his master had given him a jolly little bell.

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546
The Debtor and his Pig by Clay Lane

There are no lengths to which some people won’t go.

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About Clay Lane nicholas@claylane.uk

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

June 17 NS

June 4 OS

The Two Shakespeares : Arthur Clutton-Brock complained that idealising Shakespeare had made him dull.
Fairway : Use each noun below in two sentences, first as the subject, and then as the object of a verb.
England Expects : Lieutenant John Pasco not only flew the most famous signal in British history, he helped write it.
Running Late : Use these adverbial clauses in your own sentences.
Peggy’s Dog : Some lines from the comic verse of Thomas Hood, for reading aloud.
An Interruption : Report this conversation without using direct speech.
Tender Plants : Prince Albert regretted the destructive power of the Art Critic.
Lost for Words : Join these ideas together into a single sentence, using ‘although’ or ‘though’.
Loan Words : Match these words to the language they come from, whether Old Norse, Malay or Welsh.
Evidence : Join these ideas together to form a single sentence, using the relative pronoun ‘who’.
Fatal Vow : Robert Pierrepont called heaven to witness that he would never pick a side in the Civil War.
Lost and Found : What would you in these difficult situations?
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