Literary quiz 2016: pit your wits against the authors – part 1

Quizmasters … from left to right: (top) Kate Summerscale, Nikesh Shukla, William Boyd, (above) Will Self, Ian Rankin, Sarah Waters.

1. Ian Rankin: In which 2016 novel would you find a killer named Roderick Macrae?

   1. Out of Bounds by Val McDermid

   2. Home by Harlan Coben

   3. His Bloody Project by Graeme Macra Burnet

2. Alex Bellos: The title of Thomas Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow is a reference to which geometric curve?

   1. the ellipse

   2. the parabola

   3. the hyperbola

3. Marina Lewycka: In which month did Chaucer’s pilgrims set out on their pilgrimage?

   1. April

   2. May

   3. June

4. Will Self: Which famous poet lurks in the background of the film that accompanied Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”?

   1. WH Auden

   2. Gary Snyder

   3. Allen Ginsberg

5. Sarah Waters: In Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies, what kind of hat does Mr Chatterbox unsuccessfully attempt to turn into a high-society trend?

   1. A chrome-yellow fedora

   2. A bottle-green bowler

   3. A polka-dot fez

6. Kate Summerscale: Which of these is not one of the rules for detective fiction devised by Ronald Knox in 1929?

   1. The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story

   2. The detective must be unmarried during the investigation of the crime

   3. No Chinaman must figure in the story

7. William Boyd: Which of these American poets was a curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York?

   1. John Ashbery

   2. Frank O'Hara

   3. Weldon Kess

8. Nikesh Shukla: Zadie Smith’s brother, children’s author Ben Bailey Smith​,​ was a member of which UK rap crew?

   1. London Posse

   2. Poisonous Poets

   3. Foreign Beggars

9. AL Kennedy: Was Benjamin Franklin:

   1. Timid

   2. Cautious

   3. Careful

10. Rose Tremain: In Jim Crace’s apocalyptic novel The Pesthouse, do the protagonists:

    1. Destroy each other

    2. Travel eastwards towards the Atlantic

    3. Save the world

11. Blake Morrison: “If one man’s got 10 buns and another’s got two, and a bun has got to be given up by one of them, then surely you take it from the man with 10 buns.” This is the taxation policy advocated by:

    1. Alfred Polly in HG Wells’s The History of Mr Polly

    2. Gordon Comstock in George Orwell’s Keep the Aspidistra Flying

    3. Jim Dixon in Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim

12. Sarah Perry: When Watson first discusses sharing lodgings with Holmes, he warns the Great Detective that he keeps a “bull pup”. What is it?

    1. An English breed of dog

    2. A firearem

    3. A band of pipe

13. John Banville: Who gave a lecture on life in Gloriani’s garden?

    1. William James

    2. Lambert Strether

    3. Fabrizio Corbera

14. Charlotte Mendelson: What was the verdict of Angela Carter, subject of Edmund Gordon’s new biography, on Jane Austen’s Emma?

    1. "Ugh!"

    2. "Surprisingly savage"

    3. "A miracle"

15. Shami Chakrabarti: A female writer last won the Man Booker prize in which year?

    1. 2013

    2. 2014

    3. 2015

Solutions

1:C, 2:C, 3:A, 4:C, 5:B, 6:B, 7:B, 8:B, 9:C, 10:B, 11:C, 12:B, 13:B, 14:A, 15:A

Scores