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Sent to Coventry
JOHN GREEN pays tribute to the West Midlands city that’s to become Britain’s city of culture in 2021

I WAS very pleased to hear that Coventry has been chosen to become Britain’s city of culture in 2021. 

But then I’m biased, being an Old Coventrian, having spent my childhood and teenage years in this medieval city. 

It is said that the expression “being sent to Coventry” originated from the 17th century, when royalist prisoners were kept there during the English revolution and were ostracised by the staunchly republican citizens.

In the late ’50s the great Afro-American Bass Paul Robeson sang to an enthralled audience at the city’s Hippodrome

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