A team from the Daily Telegraph has scooped the annual English PEN quiz for the second year in a row – and it’s a good job too, because the whereabouts of the trophy is something of a mystery.
Twenty companies from the spheres of media, publishing and law took part, including a crack team from the Guardian (who will now be getting their P45s, of course). HarperCollins came a brave second, after a tense tie-breaker with Telegraph hacks. Hachette UK were third.
Congrats to winning telegraph team at PEN quiz tonight. Guardian-Observer inquest begins tonight pic.twitter.com/24YWZpoSEA
— alan rusbridger (@arusbridger) November 11, 2014
Other guests at the 13th annual fundraiser, which was held at the St Pancras Renaissance hotel in London and presented by the author and comedian Viv Groskop, included the authors Amanda Craig, Sebastian Faulks, Philip Hensher and Neel Mukherjee.
The Telegraph team was so confident of victory that they did not even bother to bring back the trophy they won last year. Or perhaps, as one snout explained to Monkey, it was mislaid following the sacking of former editor Tony Gallagher earlier this year, in whose office the prize was believed to be prominently displayed.
The Telegraph has not yet taken up Monkey’s offer of explaining where the trophy is. Maybe Gallagher needs to have a root through some of those cardboard boxes before next year’s quiz …
