TLC Quiz Questions & Answers: Season 4
That’s right—all your season 4 quizzes and answers in one place! You can also listen to them here on your chosen podcast provider:
Quiz Answers: Board Games (May 19)
1. What was the original title of the board game Monopoly?
Answer: The Landlord’s Game
2. What's the longest route in the US version of the board game Ticket to Ride? Is it...
a) Los Angeles to Chicago
b) Seattle to New York
c) Boston to Miami
Answer: it’s b) Seattle to New York which would score you 22 points.
3. Which of the following isn't a real game: King of Cupcakes, Unexploded Cow, Quacks of Quedlinberg or Pizza Express?
Answer: King of Cupcakes though there is a game called Queen of Cupcakes
4. What was the first board game to be played in space?
Answer: Chess. Cosmonauts Andrian Nikolayev and Vitaly Sevastyanov played a game in 1970 onboard the Russian spacecraft, Soyuz 9.
5. Name three songs that would be very appropriate in a board game café.
Answer: There are loads you could have!
For example, Abba’s The Name of the Game or The Winner Takes It All,
Ticket to Ride by the Beatles and there’s actually a game called Octopus’ Garden too
Tumbling Dice – the Rolling Stones
Two can play that game – Bobby Brown
Love is a losing game – Amy Winehouse
Roll of the dice – Bruce Springsteen
Quit playing games with my heart – Backstreet Boys
Play the game – Queen
Patience – Take That
Chess – the musical
Snakes and Ladders – Men at Work
(1/3 point per answer. You can also have ones that aren’t on this list).
6. Which board game shares its name – and takes its inspiration from – a fortified city in southern France? (It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Answer: Carcassonne
7. What do you call the little people-shaped figurines used in many board games like Agricola and Carcassonne?
Answer: Meeples. The word ‘meeple’ is a blend of 'my' and 'people' and was apparently coined in 2000 by knitting blogger Alison Hansel during a game of Carcassonne.
8. Who was murdered in the game Cluedo?
Answer: Dr Black (UK version) or Mr Boddy (US)
9. Which word scores the highest in the game Scrabble, assuming there are no bonuses?
ABSENCE, PHOTO or MOVING
Answer: MOVING would score 12 whilst ABSENCE and PHOTO would only score 11 and 10 respectively.
10. What’s the name of the cat in the Little Board Game Café? (Hint: if you haven’t read it, it’s the name of a well-known board game too!)
Answer: Catan. (Used to be called Settlers or Settlers of Catan)
Quiz Answers: Podcasts (May 26)
1. Before they were called podcasts, what were they called?
Audio Blogs
2. What year did Guardian and BBC Journalist Ben Hammersley first use the term “Podcasting”?
2004
3. Where does the term Podcast come from?
Portable on Demand Broadcast/ Personal On Demand Broadcast
4. How many people, worldwide, listen to podcasts?
a. 380 Million b. 465 Million c. 550 million
5. Most popular genre of podcast?
a. True Crime b. Comedy c. Literature
6. Most downloaded Podcast?
Joe Rogan Experience, with 11 million listeners per episode
7. When was podcast declared word of the year by the New Oxford Dictionary?
2005
8. Which author featured on the first episode of Two Lit Chicks?
Julie Cohen
9. Who was the first US President to podcast?
George W Bush. He used podcasting to deliver his weekly address.
10. What is the most popular platform for podcast listeners?
Spotify
Spotify 36.3 million vs Apple 28.8 Million
Quiz answers: Marriage in Literature (June 2)
Today Kathleen Whyman challenges the chicks with a quiz about marriage in literature. Who will be one step closer to that bottle of Bollinger: Julia or Ed?
Kathleen is an author, a journalist, and a knackered mum. She has two books out, Wife Support System and Second Wife Syndrome and her third book, Would You Ask My Husband That? is out on August 7, 2023.
1. In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, her marriage to Mr Rochester is thwarted by the discovery he already has a wife. Where is she and what is her name?
Answer: Attic. Bertha Antoinetta Mason.
2. The Stepford Wives Written by – Ira Levin is a satirical psychological thriller. It’s been made into a film twice. Who played the female lead in each version?
Answer: Katharine Ross in 1975 and Nicole Kidman in 2004
3. In Taylor Jenkins Reid novel about reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo, she recounts her past to a journalist. How many husbands has she had?
Answer: The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo
4. In one of Oscar Wilde’s plays, two men woo two women, but the women are adamant they’ll only marry a man of a certain name. What is the name of the play, which has the man’s name in it?
Answer: The Importance of Being Earnest
5. How to Be A Good Husband and How To Be A Good Wife – two little guides that were among the first self-help books, containing timelessly advice, such as: -
· Don’t squeeze the tube of toothpaste from the top instead of from the bottom.
· Don’t think that your wife has placed waste-paper baskets in the rooms as ornaments.
· Don’t tell your wife terminological inexactitudes, which are, in plain English, lies. A woman has wonderful intuition for spotting even minor departures from the truth.
· Come down to breakfast with a smile. As the head of the house, it is your duty to see that everyone starts the day in an atmosphere of happiness.
· It is a wife’s duty to look her best. If you don’t tidy yourself up, don’t be surprised if your husband compares you unfavourably with the typist at the office.
What decade were these books written?
Answer: 1930s
6. What was the sequel to Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women?
Bonus points if you can name books three and four also.
Answer: Good Wives, Little Men, Jo’s Boys
7. What was Jackie Collins’ debut novel, released on 30th May 1979, called?
Answer: The World is Full of Married Men
8. The Time-Traveler’s Wife was a bestseller when it was published in 2003. It’s a love story about Henry, a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably, and about Clare, his wife, an artist who has to cope with his frequent absences. Who is the author?
Answer: Audrey Niffeneger
9. In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, who is the notorious wife he writes about?
Answer: The Wife of Bath
10. What is the pseudonym of the husband-and wife- writing team behind 25 psychological thrillers, including The Memory Game and The Safe House?
Answer: Nicci French – Sean French and Nicci Gerrard
11. Oliver Sacks is, according to Amazon, the 20th century's greatest neurologist. In 2011 he wrote a provocative exploration of the mysteries of the human mind. It was called The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a…. what?
Answer: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
12. What is the name of William Shakespeare’s wife?
Answer: Anne Hathaway
Quiz Answers: Famous Last Words (June 9)
Famous last words quiz
Some are controversial and most final words are hearsay so just bear that in mind. The quiz is just for fun! If it helps, just assume we’ve asked you to choose the closest answer rather than the correct answer. Having said that, we welcome a fact check so write in if you feel the need to correct us. If you do, just make it super witty... in case it’s the last thing you ever do 😉
Q. 1 Here’s the quote: ‘This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. Either it goes or I do.’
Was this the alleged deathbed utterance of Irish poet, playwright and novelist, Oscar Wilde, or the final line from his 1895 play 'The Importance of being Earnest'?
A. These were, indeed, Oscar Wilde’s “famous last words.” Or, were they? It’s controversial.
For starters, he’s often misquoted as referencing ‘the drapes’ rather than the wallpaper. Also, it’s since been clarified that these were not his last words at all but just one of many things he said near the end of his life, and that his last words were a prayer. Either way, those close to him wanted him to be remembered for going out on a zinger, and who are we to get in the way of an Irishman and a tall tale?
Incidentally, the final line of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ was, ‘I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.’
Q. 2. Here’s the quote: ‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’
Were these the last written words of American novelist and writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, or is this the last line from his 1925 novel, ‘The Great Gatsby’?
A. Classic literature lovers would have known this as one of the more famous final lines from ‘The Great Gatsby.’
F. Scott Fitzgerald himself died in Hollywood on December 21, 1940, aged 44. He was eating a chocolate bar and editing a football story. The last words F. Scott Fitzgerald ever wrote complimented the author of the story: ‘Good prose.’
Q. 3 Here’s the quote: ‘There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.’
Were these Ernest Hemingway’s final words to his wife, Mary, before he took his own life, or the final words from his 1927 short story ‘Hills Like White Elephants’?
A. The answer is ‘Hills Like White Elephants.’
According to the book ‘Hemingway: The Final Years’ by Michael S. Reynolds, his parting words to his wife were, ‘Goodnight, My Kitten.’
Q. 4 Here’s the quote: ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty — that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’
We’ve probably all heard some variation of this line before, but was it the last thing poet, John Keats, said before he succumbed to tuberculosis, or the last line in his 1819 poem ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’?
A. The answer is the poem ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn.’
John Keats died on the 23rd of February 1821, aged just 25. According to his close friend Joseph Severn, his final words were, ‘Severn-I–lift me up–I am dying–I shall die easy–don’t be frightened–be firm, and thank God it has come!’
Elsewhere it has been quoted that his last words were the slightly more poetic ‘I feel daisies growing over me.’ But we’re gonna let Severn have the final word on this one, so to speak, because he stayed with his friend till the bitter end.
Q. 5. Here’s the quote: ‘I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been.’
Is this the last line in Virginia Woolf’s suicide note, or the last line in her 1929 extended essay, ‘A Room of One’s Own’?
A. It was the suicide note
In her diaries, Woolf said, ‘The only way I keep afloat... is by working... Directly I stop working I feel that I am sinking down, down. And as usual, I feel that if I sink further I shall reach the truth.’
In 1941, Woolf filled her pockets with stones, walked into a river and drowned. Whether or not she ‘reached the truth’ remains a mystery.
6. Here’s the quote: ‘At fifty, everyone has the face he deserves.’
Were these the last known words ever penned by English writer, George Orwell, or was this the last line in his dystopian 1949 novel, ‘1984’?
A. This line is said to have come from Orwell’s own handwritten notes shortly before his death.
Somewhat ironically, Orwell never made it to fifty. He died at age forty-six – another death-by-tuberculosis.
Q. 7 Here’s the quote: ‘A way a lone a last a loved a long the’
Were these the incoherent ramblings of a dying James Joyce, or did they appear at the end of his experimental 1939 novel 'Finnegan's Wake'?
A. The answer is ‘Finnegans Wake,’ but it’s a bit of a trick question.
‘Finnegan’s Wake’ doesn’t have a traditional narrative structure. The book ends with this, the first half of the first sentence of the novel. So, the last line is actually part of the first line, and the first line is part of the last line.
According to the book ‘James Joyce’ by Richard Ellmann, James Joyce’s actual dying words were, ‘Does nobody understand?’ to which I say, ‘No, not really.’
Q. 8. Here’s the quote: ‘Oh, I am not going to die, am I? He will not separate us, we have been so happy.’
Did Charlotte Brontë (Two Lit Chicks listeners will remember it’s pronounced Brontee not Brontay)… did Charlotte Brontë utter these words before she died, or did her titular character, Jane Eyre, shout them at her love, Rochester, in the final lines of Brontë’s 1847 novel ‘Jane Eyre’?
A. These were Brontë’s own dying words.
Tragically, many speculate that Brontë and her unborn child died of dehydration and malnourishment arising from severe morning sickness.
It may be an interesting choice, but the last lines in Jane Eyre are (sort of) the dying words of the character ‘Sinjin,’ who Jane Eyre fans will remember as the dude Jane Eyre friend-zoned.
Q. 9. Here’s the quote: ‘I want nothing but death.’
Were these the last words of author, Jane Austen, or were they the melodramatic words of Lydia Bennet upon discovering Wickham’s deceit in the 1813 novel, ‘Pride and Prejudice’?
A. These are Jane Austen’s own dying words. By all reports, she died an agonising death, possibly due to complications arising from a long-term autoimmune disease.
Jane Austen never actually killed off any of her main characters, which was somewhat rare for the writing of the time.
Q. 10. Here’s the quote: ‘The rest is silence.’
Were these the dying words of William Shakespeare himself, or were they the dying words of the titular character of his 17th Century play, ‘The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark’ (otherwise known as ‘Hamlet’)?
A. Hamlet says these immortal words to Horatio while dying from a wound inflicted by a poisoned sword. Way to go out with a bang… well, not a bang exactly… what sound does a stab wound make?
Shakespeare was similarly poetic on the occasion of his own death. He is reported to have said, ‘I commend my soul into the hands of God, my Creator.’
Quiz Answers: Swan’s Sci-fi Quiz (June 16)
1. What is the name of the secret government organisation in Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation tasked with the ongoing monitoring and exploration of Area X?
a. Southern Reach
2. One of Gene Wolf’s most famous works, the Shadow of the Torturer, is the first book in which 4 book series?
a. The Book of the New Sun
3. What famously caused the death of the Martians in HG Wells’ War of the Worlds?
a. ‘putrefactive bacteria’ (microbes)
4. What does the fictional chemical, Ice 9, do in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle?
a. Causes water to solidify at room temperature
5. Name any 3 novels from Iain M Banks’ Culture series.
Consider Phlebas (1987)
The Player of Games (1988)
Use of Weapons (1990)
The State of the Art (1991)
Excession (1996)
Inversions (1998)
Look to Windward (2000)
Matter (2008)
Surface Detail (2010)
The Hydrogen Sonata (2012)
6. Who wrote The Island of Doctor Moreau?
a. H G Wells
7. Name the first three books of Frank Herbert’s Dune series (order of publication)
a. Dune
b. Dune Messiah
c. Children of Dune
8. Complete the name of this title: A ___ for Liebowitz, Walter M Miller Jr
a. Canticle
9. In China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station, what do the slake moths consume?
a. Human minds
10. In Adrian Tchaivovsky’s Children of Time, there are storylines following two species. One of them is human, what is the other?
a. Spiders
Quiz Answers: Name that Place (June 23)
1. 2 Points available – Author and Title
“They drove south out of a dark haze of cypress trees, and Florence suddenly appeared in the Arno valley, resplendent under golden June light. Ulysses stopped the car and got out. He raised his hand and saluted the city as Darnley had done before. Claude took flight, and the blue of his feathers against the terracotta rooftops was an electrifying sight.”
ANSWER: Still Life, Sarah Winman
2. 3 points available – Author, title, place
"The pub is warm and beery. Grog glasses—drained, foam stained—scatter sticky veneer. Red-wine lips, hoppy breath, a slurry of slurring; laughter like gunfire, craic-ing off the wood panels, mirror walls and ranks of whiskey bottles. Bar talk is of theology and adultery, literature and death, soap and sausages. Everything and nothing, discussed or daydreamed over a quick cheese sandwich. A nothing old day. But the stuff of life—infinitesimal yet essential—all the same.”
ANSWER: Dublin, James Joyce in Ulysses.
3. 2 points available – Author and title
“Dead in the heart of Lee County, between the Ruelynn coal camp and a settlement people call Right Poor, the top of a road between two steep mountains is where our single-wide was set. I wasted more hours up in those woods than you’d want to count, alongside of a boy named Maggot, wading the creek and turning over big rocks and being mighty. I could go different ways but definitely a Marvel hero as preferable to DC, Wolverine being a favorite. Whereas Maggot tended to choose Storm, which is a girl.”
ANSWER: Lee County, Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead
4. 2 points available – author and title
“The car broke free from the tunnel of trees revealing the chateau: a grand mansion made of tuffeau stone, glimmering sandy yellow in the mid-afternoon sun. Verdant creepers snuggled into the lower walls. Stella counted five turrets with grey tile roofs like witches’ hats. It looked so picturesque. So romantic. A shiver of excitement ran through her body, despite her apprehension. She imagined how she would photograph this place: in the early morning light with the sun’s first soft rays making the building glow.”
ANSWER: Julia Boggio, Shooters
5. 2 points available – author and title
‘The humidity hits like a brick wall. Stepping out of the plane onto the rickety staircase, Sarah flinches at the face- on affront. Air thick enough for gills. And the smell - a clamorous cooking pot of sap, hot tarmac and blossoming mould. Blood rushes to her skin and hersweat pores crank into overdrive to match the atmospheric dampness. A giggling red-faced stewardess pushes her through the door. '“Welcome to Freetown,” she sings. “Is it your first time, love?”
”Um, yes.’” Sarah answers between deep gulps of air.
”Whatcha here for? Diamonds or do-gooding?”
”Neither.”
”Really? Well, see you on the way out.”
ANSWER: The Head of the Snake, Lucy Hooft
6. 3 points available – location, title and author
“Only an island as lackadaisical as this would allow itself to be infested by such troupes of casual and impertinent goats.”
ANSWER: Kefalonia, Louis de Bernieres, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
7. 2 points available – title and author
“I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don’t feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again.”
ANSWER: JRR Tolkein, The Fellowship of the Ring
8. 2 points available – title and author
“For me, Savannah’s resistance to change was its saving grace. The city looked inward, sealed off from the noises and distractions of the world at large. It grew inward, too, and in such a way that its people flourished like hothouse plants tended by an indulgent gardener. The ordinary became extraordinary. Eccentrics thrived. Every nuance and quirk of personality achieved greater brilliance in that lush enclosure than would have been possible anywhere else in the world.”
ANSWER: John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
9. 3 points available – title and author
“Now that NASA can talk to me, they won’t shut the hell up. They want constant updates on ever Hab system, and they’ve got a room full of people trying to micromanage my crops. It’s awesome to have a bunch of dipshits on Earth telling me, a botanist, how to grow plants. I mostly ignore them. I don’t want to come off as arrogant here, but I’m the best botanist on the planet.
ANSWER: Mars, The Martian by Andy Weir.
10. 2 points available – title and author
“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a Black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.
ANSWER: To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Total points available - 23
Quiz Answers: Kelk’s RomComs (June 30)
1) What year was Bridget Jones’s Diary first published?
1996
2) Which rom-com begins with the following line: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”?
Pride and Prejudice
3) What’s the name of the magazine Andy works for in The Devil Wears Prada?
Runway
4) The character Becky Bluewood appears in which classic rom-com series?
Confessions of a Shopaholic
5) Before publishing his novel My Legendary Girlfriend, author Mike Gale worked at which iconic teen magazine?
Just 17
6) BookTok sensation Morning Glory Milking Farm by C. M. Nascosta features a romance between the human Violet and which mythical creature?
Minotaur (don’t ask)
7) The breakout 2023 Netflix hit XO, Kitty is based on characters from the novel To All the Boys I Loved Before. The Lara Jean series was written by which author?
Jenny Han
8) What was the title of Emily Hendry’s first adult romance novel?
Beach Read
9) Complete the title of this global bestseller by Elena Armas…
The American Roommate Experiment
10) Name three books by Marian Keyes
Again, Rachel
Rachel’s Holiday
Watermelon
Grown Ups
And loads more, all found here!
Quiz Answers: Boys in Books (July 7)
For the Love of Boys - a Literary Themed Quiz
By Uju Asika, author of Raising Boys Who Do Better
Q1: What’s the name of the naughty schoolboy in Francesca Simon’s series:
Horrid Henry
Horrible Henry
Henry the Hair-Raiser
A: Horrid Henry
Q2: Which female author is credited with this quote:
‘I have a son, who is my heart. A wonderful young man, daring and loving
and strong and kind’
Was it:
Chimamanda Adichie
Maya Angelou
Zadie Smith
B: Maya Angelou
Q3: How many movie adaptations of the story of puppet boy Pinocchio have there been?
At least 10
At least 25
At least 50
C: At least 50
(Source: Have We Reached Peak Pinocchio? Fifty Remakes of the Classic Tale Baffle Fans
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pinocchio-movie-disney-del-toro-remakes-netflix-11672068863)
Q4: My son came home from school and said they’d had a special assembly led by someone he referred to as ‘some Perry Grayson brudda’. Which revered artist, author and broadcaster did he mean?
Perry Mason
David Jason
Grayson Perry
C: Grayson Perry
Q5: What book about modern masculinity did Grayson Perry write?
Of Boys and Men
To Raise a Boy
The Descent of Man
C: The Descent of Man
Q6: Award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote an incredible book about race in America in the form of a letter to his Black son. What is the name of the book?
A Letter to My Black Son
Between the World and Me
Just the Two of Us
B: Between the World and Me
Q7: What’s the title of the 2023 Oscar winning animation about a lost boy and his animal friends?
The Boy, The Mole, the Fox and the Horse
The Jungle Book
Winnie the Pooh
A: The Boy, The Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
Q8: What mega-hit YA romance and Netflix adaptation began as a webcomic on Tumblr?
Bridgerton
Sweet Tooth
Heartstopper
C: Heartstopper by Alice Osman
Q9: Who came up with the term swagger?
Jay Z
Will Smith
Will Shakespeare
C: William Shakespeare
(Source: https://www.etymonline.com/word/swagger
swagger (v.)
1580s, "to strut in a defiant or insolent manner;" earliest recorded usages are in Shakespeare ("Midsummer Night's Dream," "2 Henry IV," "King Lear"), probably a frequentative form of swag (v.) "to sway." Meaning "to boast or brag" is from 1590s. Related: Swaggered; swaggering. The noun is attested from 1725.)
Q10: What is the connection between Peter Parker and Miles Morales?
They were different pen names used by the author Graham Greene
They were both characters who were bitten by radioactive spiders
They were both famous literary detectives
B: They were both characters who were bitten by radioactive spiders to become Spider-Man
Quiz Answers: Mum Noir Quiz (July 14)
Answers underlined!
Q1. In The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena, the life of a new mother starts to unravel when she is invited to a dinner party but she can’t bring her what?
a) Shotgun
B) Dachshund
C) Daughter
D) Baby monitor
E) Ukelele
Q2. In Big Little Lies, an act of violence takes place during a fancy dress trivia night at a primary school. The mothers and fathers have all dressed up as what?
A) Minnie and Mickey Mouse
B) Donald and Melanie Trump
C) Elvis Presley and Audrey Hepburn
D) Pirates of the Caribbean
Q3. In the contemporary thriller People Like Her, about an annoying influencer mum whose life is nothing like she portrays online, what are her photogenic children called?
A) Lulu and Wolf
B) Lola and Hunter
C) Cocoa and Bear
D) Snap, Crackle and Pop
Q4. In Harriet Walker’s thriller The New Girl, journalist Margot starts to suspect that her new acquaintance Maggie wants to steal what?
A) Job
B) Husband
C) Baby
D) Home Décor Ideas
Q5. Harriet Tyce’s Blood Orange features a barrister mother with an unhealthy relationship to what?
(2 out of the 5 needed)
A) Her husband
B) Her children
C) The Truth
D) Alcohol
E) Citrus Fruits
Q6. In a memorable monologue in bestselling thriller Gone Girl, Amy describes the cool girl which all women pretend to be before they are married and have children. Name two defining characteristics.
Any of them from:
Hot
Brilliant
Funny
Adores football
Adores Poker
Adores Dirty Jokes
Plays Video games
Chugs beer
Loves threesomes
Does Anal
Jams chillidogs into her mouth
Remaining a size 2
Q7. In Girl on a Train, which useful household instrument is branded in the confrontation?
A) Steak Knife
B) Corkscrew
C) Screwdriver
D) Shoehorn
E) Tin opener
Q8. In Gillian McAllister’s thriller Wrong Place Wrong Time, it opens with the main character Jen waiting for her teenage son to come home from a night out. What has she carved in the meantime?
A) Joint of Beef
B) Pumpkin
C) Decorative Spoon
D) Hole in her husband’s head
Q9. Which female-focused thriller named after a bird centres on a pregnant woman who starts to suspect her partner is having an affair with her lodger?
A) Cuckoo
B) Magpie
C) Peacock
D) Turkey
Q10. In a creepy moment in Leïla Slimani’s Lullaby, what do a couple return to find their nanny has placed on a table?
A) Pig’s head
B) Chicken carcass
C) Doll with no limbs
D) Human hand
Q11. In None of This is True by Lisa Jewell, it tells the tale of an unlikely friendship between two mothers who share what?
A) Birthday
B) Secret
C) Obsession with wearing denim
D) Apartment
E) Burrito
Q12. In The Other Mothers by Katherine Faulkner, what is the main character Tash shocked to discover in one of the other mother’s bathrooms?
A) A stolen necklance
B) Mysterious pills
C) A bathmat with the price label £8.99
D) A vaginal steamer recommended by Gwyneth Paltrow
Tiebreak question:
In the Other Mothers, what is the name of Tash’s son?
Answer: Finn
Quiz Answers: Startling (July 21)
‘A reader should be startled.’
Professor Anthony Jackson, Manchester University
1: A mountweazel is a made-up word used by dictionary or map makers as a ‘copyright trap’ to avoid other creators from stealing their work (if they used the made-up word then they had copied it). Which famous historical fiction author caught out other authors because they copied a historical fact she had made up (and true facts that only she had access to)?
Answer: Georgette Heyer. Known for meticulous research, she did not like other authors just copying her work.
Books you might like to read: Georgette Heyer’s Regency Buck and any of her other many books. The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams.
2: If a woman in China during the Ch’ing (Qing) period (18th century, the last dynasty of China) showed up for selection as an imperial concubine with bound feet, what would happen?
· She’d be chosen as empress or concubine.
· She’d be chosen as a court lady.
· She’d be sent home in disgrace and her family heavily fined.
Answer: Sent home in disgrace and fined. Only the Han Chinese bound women’s feet. The ruling class (the Qing dynasty) were a different ethnic group and tried repeatedly to ban foot-binding. No imperial concubine or empress had bound feet.
Books you might like to read: Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan which shows two Han women, one of whom has her feet bound. Melissa Addey’s The Forbidden City series, following four imperial Qing concubines.
3: In Morocco in the 11th century, what did Muslim Berbers (contemporary preferred name: Amazigh) wear on their faces?
· The women fully veiled their faces.
· The men fully veiled their faces.
· Both men and women fully veiled their faces.
Answer: the men fully veiled their faces, it was considered deeply inappropriate for a man to show his face to anyone except his close family at home. Women wore headdresses of wrapped cloth but their faces were not veiled at all.
Books you might like to read: The Quest for El Cid by Richard L Fletcher (non-fiction) and Melissa Addey’s series The Moroccan Empire, following the rise of an empire whose leader fought and killed El Cid.
4: What was the popular white very simple column dress of the Regency period based on?
Answer: It was based on classical Roman and Greek statues. There was a craze for Roman things because of Pompeii being dug up, so women were emulating white tunic dresses that statues wore and it was also popular to wear coral beads, again based on finds from Pompeii.
Books you might like to read: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Mary Beard’s Emperor of Rome (due out Sep 23)
5: Can you name at least three items from the famous Wind in the Willows picnic?
Answer: "What's inside it?" asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity.
"There's cold chicken inside it," replied the Rat briefly: "coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrolls–
cresssandwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater—"
"O stop, stop!" cried the Mole in ecstasies. "This is too much!"
"Do you really think so?" enquired the Rat seriously. "It's only what I always take on these little excursions; and the other animals are always telling me that I'm a mean beast and cut it very fine!"
Books you might like to read: The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
Sites you might like to read:, where cooks make recipes prompted by books:
http://www.fiction-food.com/p/banquet-of-books.html
https://foodinbooks.com/books/
https://www.southernliving.com/food/dish/literary-recipes
The Regency Cook https://www.paulcouchman.co.uk does Regency cookery courses online which are huge fun to take part in.
6: Which indie (self-published) author outsold the Harry Potter books in the UK with a crime series?
Answer: LJ Ross, self-published crime novelist, who recently celebrated selling 8 million copies of her books
Books you might like to read: LJ Ross’ crime series DCI Ryan. https://ljrossauthor.com/series/dci-ryan-series/
Want to find indie authors by genre? https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/author-search Just set the genre button and browse!
7: What % of books sold are part of a series (fiction and non-fiction)?
· 25%
· 50%
· 75%
Answer: 75%
Books you might like to read: Terry Pratchett (over 40 novels set on the Discworld!) and DK (Dorling Kindersley) Children’s Anthologies, stunning books exploring our world and the universe https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09YH5T6WN
8: ‘Poetry doesn’t sell’. Which self-published poet has sold 11 million copies of her book?
Answer: Rupi Kaur wrote, illustrated, and self-published her first poetry collection, milk and honey (2014). Next came its artistic siblings, the sun and her flowers (2017) and home body (2020), both debuting at #1 on bestseller lists across the world. These collections have sold over 11 million copies and have been translated into over 43 languages, with milk and honey surpassing Homer’s Odyssey as the best-selling poetry of all time.
Books you might like to read:: Rupi Kaur’s poetry https://rupikaur.com and Gillian Cross and Neil Packer’s beautifully illustrated children’s copy of The Odyssey
9: What job did Julia Donaldson do before she became a famous children’ author?
Answer: Busker
Books you might like to read: Tabby McTat (a picture book about a busker’s cat) by Julia Donaldson and The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1455581097
10: What is Steganography?
Answer: Steganography is the practice of concealing information within another message or physical object to avoid detection. Steganography can be used to hide virtually any type of digital content, including text, image, video, or audio content.
Books you might like to read: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, or A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, in which Madame Defarge uses knitting to record the names of people to be executed during the French Revolution.
Quiz Answers: End of season 4 quiz (The Final Battle)
Q1) What are the two terms that Bridget Jones’s Diary is credited with giving the English language?
Any of
Singletons
Smug married
Fuckwittage
Q2) In Richard’s Swan self-published The Art of War series, what is the name of the simultaneus orgasm program people use? (answer in bold)
A) We climax
B) XClimax
C) 2Climax
Q3) Name any of the agreements in the book The Fifth Agreement
Any of:
BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD
DON’T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY
DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS
ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST
BE SKEPTICAL, BUT LEARN TO LISTEN
Q4) Alex Hay has written several books since being on the Curtis Brown Creative course; including the course book and The Housekeepers, how many has he written? (answer in bold)
A) 3
B) 5
C) 4
Q5) What is the name of the school of psychotherapy created by Victor Frankl, the author of Man’s Search for Meaning (answer in bold)
A) Logotherapy
B) Iconotherapy
C) Context therapy
Q6) To what was Lindsey referring when she said: “It appears there is no rhyme or reason so I may as well give it a go”. (answer in bold)
a) Publishing in general
b) Rom-coms
c) Self-publishing
Q7) What was the name of the actual school that Donna Tart attended that served as the inspiration for the school in The Secret History? (answer in bold)
A) Bambington
B) Beddington
C) Bonnington
Q8) Which of the Star Wars trilogies was Richard Swan’s favourite? (answer in bold)
A) Original
B) Prequels
C) Sequels
Q9) Name two of the three main characters in Oh! Sister by Jodie Chapman?
Two out of:
Isobel
Jen
Zelda
Q10) On the episode with LJ Ross, she said she wanted to set up her own what in Northumberland (answer in bold)
A) Vineyard
B) Publishing house
C) Murder tour