Literature - 1 point
| Category | Question | Answer | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comics and Magazines | What is the name of the comic strip, drawn by Bill Watterson and which ran from 1985 to 1995, that features a boy and his toy tiger? | Calvin and Hobbes | 2023/04/17 |
| Comics and Magazines | Gnitty, an armoured knight with a bent sword, appears in the logo for which British satirical magazine | Private Eye | 2023/04/17 |
| Comics and Magazines | Whose football career lasted from 1954 to 1993, when it was finally ended after a helicopter crash forced the amputation of his left foot? | Roy Race (a.k.a. Roy of the Rovers) | 2023/04/17 |
| Comics and Magazines | What was the nickname of comic strip football player Hamish Balfour, the Hebridean player for Princes Park who had the hardest shot in the world? | Hotshot Hamish | 2023/04/17 |
| Comics and Magazines | After which commentator and presenter did the magazine Private Eye name its feature highlighting gaffes and nonsensical remarks made by sports commentators? | David Coleman | 2023/04/17 |
| Comics and Magazines | What is the name of the regular feature in the Private Eye magazine highlighting pretentious writing in the media? | Pseud's Corner | 2023/04/17 |
| Comics and Magazines | What was the humourous name of the Scottish football manager in the comic Hotshot Hamish? | Mr McBossy | 2023/04/17 |
| Comics and Magazines | A debutante emerging from a cloud of butterflies and roses was the first cover of which magazine, launched in 1892? | Vogue | 2024/04/11 |
| Comics and Magazines | The magazine Grand Royal, which ran for six editions in the 1990s, was founded by which New York hip-hop and rap-rock trio? | Beastie Boys | 2024/12/07 |
| Comics and Magazines | The character Eric Wimp was the alter ego of which comic book superhero, adapted into a cartoon in the 1980s? | Bananaman | 2025/01/01 |
| Fairy Tales and Fables | By what name is the story Chicken Licken, or Chicken Little, traditionally known in the UK? | Henny Penny | 2024/12/23 |
| Classical | Nicknamed 'The Father of Comedy', which ancient Greek playwright was the author of works whose titles translate as The Clouds, The Wasps, The Birds, and The Frogs? | Aristophanes | 2024/04/18 |
| Classical | Is Greek mythology, who was turned into a spider as punishment for boastfully defeating the goddess Athena in a weaving contest by producing a work that mocked the Gods? | Arachne | 2024/10/31 |
| Classical | According to Hesiod’s retelling of the myth in 700BC, what was the only item left in Pandora’s jar - later referred to as Pandora’s Box - after she opened it in curiosity and released a plague of ills upon humanity? | Hope *The Greek is Elpis. | 2024/12/07 |
| North America | 'I think I can, I think I can' is a mantra repeated in which US vehicle-based folktale with the moral that perseverance can overcome physical limitations? | The Little Engine that Could | 2024/10/22 |
| North America | The Stephen King book Doctor Sleep, which was adapted into a film in 2019, is a sequel to which famous King horror story, itself adapted to film in 1980? | The Shining | 2024/10/22 |
| North America | In the book series The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot, later adapted into films staring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews, teenager Mia Thermopolis discovers she is the sole heir to the throne of which fictitious European nation? | Genovia | 2024/10/22 |
| North America | What item of clothing connects a characters from books by Stephen King, Dr Seuss, and Lewis Carroll? | Hat *Rose the Hat from Stephen King's Doctor Sleep; The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss; The Mad Hatter from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. | 2024/10/31 |
| UK Fiction | What was the name of the epistolary novel written by a teenage Jane Austen, and never submitted for publication, in which the recently widowed title character attempts to manipulate men into maintaining her comfortable lifestyle? | Lady Susan | 2023/04/17 |
| UK Fiction | George Knightley, otherwise known as Mr Knightley, is the male lead in which Jane Austen novel? | Emma | 2023/04/17 |
| UK Fiction | In Jane Austen's book Pride and Prejudice, what is Mr Darcy's first name? | Fitzwilliam | 2023/04/17 |
| UK Fiction | Giving the answer to a Strand Magazine readers competition in 1927, which story did Arthur Conan Doyle reveal to be his favourite Sherlock Holmes tale? | The Specked Band | 2024/11/18 |
| UK Fiction | In the Sherlock Holmes story The Red-Headed League, by Arthur Conan Doyle, a mysterious benefactor pays a shop owner to copy out the contents of which reference book under the pretense of financially helping people with red hair? | Encyclopædia Britannica | 2024/12/07 |
| Plays | In which William Shakespeare comedy do the King of Navarre and three male companions make a vow to study for three years without seeing a woman, only for the Princess of France and her three attending ladies to arrive, leading to romance and broken oaths? | Love's Labour's Lost | 2024/04/05 |
| European Fiction | Which two word term devised by Marcel Proust in his book In Search of Lost Time describes a memory triggered by external stimulation of the senses, first appearing when the narrator eats a tea-soaked madeleine which makes him recall his childhood? | Involuntary memory | 2024/10/31 |
| Russian Fiction | The sequence colloquially known as Raskolnikov's Dream in the novel Crime and Punishment, written by Fydor Dostoevsky, depicts a mob beating to death what type of animal? | Horse | 2023/04/17 |
| Russian Fiction | In chapter 6 of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, what type of animal does the character Pierre drunkenly steal before tying a police officer to its back and throwing it into the Moyka river? | Bear | 2023/04/23 |
| Russian Fiction | Published in 1899, which book was the last so-called 'long novel' published by Leo Tolstoy, and tells the story of a prince trying to save a convicted young woman he had previously seduced? | Resurrection | 2024/10/22 |
| Russian Fiction | Count Aleksey Vronsky is the lover of which literary character? | Anna Karenina | 2024/10/31 |
| Children's Fiction | In the book Harry's Mad, by Dick King-Smith, what type of bird is Madison? | Parrot *In the book, Madison is an African grey parrot. In the later TV show, Madison is a macaw. | 2023/04/08 |
| Letters | The 12th century love affair between lecturer Peter Abelard and 17-year old student Héloise, which led to the former being castrated, is a famous love story from which European capital city, where the two are buried? | Paris | 2023/04/17 |
| Quote | Which literary character was told he would 'never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him'? | Macbeth | 2024/05/05 |
| Authors | For what do the initials A.A. stand in the name of Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne? | Alan Alexander | 2024/12/07 |
| Connections | What journalistic term was the name of both a 1938 novel by Evelyn Waugh about a hapless reporter named William Boot, and a 2006 film directed by Woody Allen? | Scoop | 2023/04/17 |
| Non-fiction | Which book, written by Rachel Carson and published in 1962, highlighted the damage done by pesticides such as DDT and is seen as a major influence in promoting environmentalism in the US? | Silent Spring | 2023/04/17 |
| Non-fiction | Which American feminist wrote the books Against Interpretation, Styles of Radical Will, and On Photography? | Susan Sontag | 2023/04/17 |
| Non-fiction | What is the name of the much-derided book by Neil Strauss that was released in 2007 and followed a community of pick-up artists sharing techniques on how to score with women? | The Game *full title: The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists | 2023/04/17 |
| Non-fiction | What three-word nickname, relating to its colour and size, was given to the book Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung | Little Red Book | 2023/04/17 |
| Non-fiction | What colour completes the title of the 2021 book by Elizabeth Kolbert which investigates geoengineering projects and their disastrous unintended consequences, including plans to spray particles across the atmosphere to protect against global warming: Under a …Sky? | White | 2024/12/07 |
| Non-fiction | Tony and Maureen Wheeler were the founders of what travel guidebook publishing company, having released their first book in 1973 to document spots on their own trip from London to Australia? | Lonely Planet | 2024/12/19 |
| Poetry | How many 'on', or syllables, are there in total in a haiku? | 17 *The structure of a haiku is a five-syllable line, followed by a seven-syllable line, followed by a five-syllable line. | 2024/04/09 |
| Poetry | 'Cannon to right of them, Cannon to the left of them, Cannon in front of them, Volleyed and thundered' are lines from which poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson? | The Charge of the Light Brigade | 2023/04/17 |
| Poetry | ‘And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.’ These are the final lines of a poem by which former Poet Laureate? | William Wordsworth | 2024/05/10 |
| Poetry | In a 1996 poll of the nation organised by the BBC, what was named the UK's favourite poem? | If-, by Rudyard Kipling | 2023/04/17 |
| Poetry | The poem Goblin Market, which recounts two sisters buying enchanted fruit and is often considered an allegory for female homosexuality, was written by which 19th century English poet? | Christina Rossetti | 2024/12/07 |
| Poetry | Published in 1671, what poem by John Milton was the follow up to Paradise Lost? | Paradise Regained | 2024/12/27 |
| Poetry | ‘I kill where I please because it is all mine. / There is no sophistry in my body: / My manners are tearing off heads -’. What type of bird do these lines describe in a poem by Ted Hughes? | Hawk *The lines are from the poem Hawk Roosting, published in Hughes’s Lupercal collection in 1960. | 2025/01/09 |
| Folk Tales | Kylling Kluk, Høne Pøne, Hane Pane, And Svand, Gaase Paase, and Ræv Skræv are the characters in an early Danish version of what folk tale? | Henny Penny *Henny Penny is also known as Chicken Little or Chicken Licken. | 2024/12/27 |
| Characters | Hazel, Fiver, Blackberry and Bigwig are characters in which 1972 novel? | Watership Down *by Richard Adams | 2023/04/17 |
| Criticism | Which 2005 young adult novel was reviewed by The Daily Telegraph as 'Astonishing, mainly for the ineptitude of her prose'. | Twilight | 2023/04/17 |
| Prizes | Which book won the 2024 Booker Prize, with its single-word title making reference to its plot of six astronauts travelling around the Earth for 24 hours? | Orbital, by Samantha Harvey | 2024/12/14 |
| Newspapers | Katherine Viner is the editor of which national daily newspaper? | The Guardian | 2023/04/20 |
| Newspapers | With around one million copies a day, what newspaper has the highest print circulation - that being physical paper copies - in the UK? | Metro *Metro is a free paper distributed in cities with high commuter numbers. The Daily Mail is the highest non-free paper. | 2023/05/14 |
| Newspapers | Araucaria, Rufus, Glow-worm, Neo, and Satori have all held what role within UK national newspapers? | Crossword setter | 2024/05/05 |
| Newspapers | In 1889, the New York World newspaper and Cosmopolitan magazine sent their respective reporters Nelly Bly and Elizabeth Bisland on assignments to recreate what 1873 novel? | Around the World in Eighty-Days, by Jules Verne *Bly had the original idea for the story, with Cosmopolitan sending their own reporter in a race after it heard what New York World was doing. Bly achieved her trip in 72 days, a world record, while Bisland took 76. | 2024/10/22 |
| Newspapers | Despite a drop of 14 per cent going into 2024, what daily newspaper in the US currently has the highest print circulation, roughly twice that of the second-place New York Times - although it has less than half the New York Times’s online subscribers? | Wall Street Journal | 2025/01/01 |
| Miscellaneous | What character in literature murdered Elizabeth Lavenza? | Frankenstein’s monster *Elizabeth is Victor Frankenstein’s fiancée. | 2024/12/19 |
Literature - 2 points
| Category | Question | Answer | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plays | In William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, what are the surnames of the titular characters? | 1. Montague 2. Capulet | 2024/10/22 |
Literature - 3 points
| Category | Question | Answer | Last Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Children's | Not including posthumous 'beginner book' collections, which three books authored by Dr Seuss feature a colour in their title? | 1. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (1960) 2. Green Eggs and Ham (1960) 3. Mr Brown Can Moo! Can You? (1970) *Since Dr Seuss died in 1991, there have been 'beginner book' collections of his work with green, orange, aqua, and violet in the title. | 2024/04/08 |
| Memoir | In Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2006 memoir Eat, Pray, Love, subsequently adapted into a film, which three countries - all beginning with the same letter - respectively relate to the actions in the book’s title? | 1. Italy (eat) 2. India (pray) 3. Indonesia (love) | 2024/12/07 |
| Prizes | What three men named Thomas or Tomas have won the Nobel Prize for Literature? | 1. Thomas Mann (1929) 2. T.S. Eliot (1948) 3. Tomas Tranströmer (2011) | 2025/01/09 |
Literature - 4 points
| Category | Question | Answer | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prizes | Which four Irish writers have won the Nobel Prize for Literature? | 1. W.B. Yeats (1923) 2. George Bernard Shaw (1925) 3. Samuel Beckett (1969) 4. Seamus Heaney (1995) | 2024/11/14 |
| English-language Fiction | What are the names of the four March sisters in Louisa May Alcott's book Little Women? | 1. Meg 2. Jo 3. Beth 4. Amy | 2023/04/22 |
| English-language Fiction | Who are the four central characters in Kenneth Grahame’s novel The Wind in the Willows? | 1. Rat (‘Ratty’) 2. Mole (‘Moley’) 3. Badger 4. Mr Toad | 2024/12/07 |
| Classical | In Virgil’s Aeneid, what four types of wood are described as being used in the construction of the Trojan horse - although scholars believe the poet was most likely seeking varied language rather than accuracy? | 1. Fir 2. Maple 3. Oak 4. Pine | 2024/12/14 |
| Plays | What are the four ‘drawing room plays’ of Irish writer Oscar Wilde? | 1. Lady Windermere’s Fan 2. A Woman of No Importance 3. An Ideal Husband 4. The Importance of Being Earnest | 2025/01/01 |
Literature - 6 points
| Category | Question | Answer | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|
| English-language Fiction | Name the six completed novels written by Jane Austen. | 1. Sense and Sensibility 2. Pride and Prejudice 3. Mansfield Park 4. Emma 5. Northanger Abbey 6. Persuasion | 2023/04/17 |
Literature - 7 points
| Category | Question | Answer | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plays | Although the death toll in the final version of the play is six, who are the seven characters that die in the first edition - or first quarto - of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet? | 1. Mercutio 2. Tybalt 3. Lady Montague 4. Benvolio 5. Paris 6. Romeo 7. Juliet *In the first quarto, Montague says his wife has died of grief, and mentions Benvolio is dead too. In the second quarto, the mention of Benvolio dying is removed. | 27 December 2024 |
Literature - 9 points
| Category | Question | Answer | Last Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| English-language Fiction | In J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings, who are the nine members of The Fellowship of the Ring? | 1. Gandalf 2. Aragorn (a.k.a. Strider or Elessar) 3. Frodo Baggins 4. Samwise 'Sam' Gamgee 5. Peregrin 'Pippin' Took 6. Meriadoc 'Merry' Brandybuck 7. Legolas 8. Gimli 9. Boromir | 2024/04/08 |
Literature - 10 points
| Category | Question | Answer | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prizes | Although there have been several winning writers who took on US citizenship, who are the 10 Nobel Laureates in Literature who were born in the United States? | 1. Sinclair Lewis (1930) 2. Eugene O’Neill (1936) 3. Pearl Buck (1938) 4. T.S. Eliot (1948) 5. William Faulkner (1949) 6. Ernest Hemingway (1954) 7. John Steinbeck (1962) 8. Toni Morrison (1993) 9. Bob Dylan (2016) 10. Louise Glück (2020) *Saul Bellow (1976) was an American writer, but was born in Canada before moving to the US as a child ** Eliot renounced his US citizenship in 1927 | 2024/10/30 |