13 June 2005
Guardian Quiz
In the week leading up to the award of the Orange Prize for Fiction, I had great fun setting the five-day quiz in the Guardian tabloid section. Just in case you missed it - or missed a couple of days out of the five - here it is in full. If you want the answers, scroll right down the page!
Monday
1. Who was the founder of the dualist religion Manichaeism?
a A 3rd century Persian mystic called Mani
b The 7th century Chinese seer known to his followers Man Chi
c A 16th century alchemist from Manchester, Mancuni
d Mani from Dylan Moran's Black Books
2. Which celebrated American novelist remarked, when visiting the Amalfi Coast, 'Positano bites deep.'?
a Ernest Hemmingway
b Norman Mailer
c John Steinbeck
d Arthur Miller
3. Who was the first ever winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction?
a Helen Fielding
b Helen Dunmore
c Helen Simpson
d Martin Amis
4. Where did Claude Debussy put the finishing touches to the proofs of his 1905 orchestral symphonic poem, La Mer?
a At the Villa Medici, Rome
b The Grand Hotel, St Helier, Jersey
c The Grand Hotel, Eastbourne
d Charles Trénet's house in Narbonne
5. Where can the earliest literary reference to the Holy Grail be found?
a In the Bible (The New Testament, Corinthians, 1, xxvii)
b In Chrétien de Troyes' Li Conte del Graal
c In Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival
d In Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code
Tuesday
1. Who preached the religious campaign against the Cathars known as the Albigensian Crusade?
a Pope Innocent III
b Pope Urban II
c Pope Benedict XVI
d Papa George Bush
2. Which of these literary pairings are not couples in real life?
a Siri Hudsvedt and Paul Auster
b Michael Frayn and Claire Tomalin
c Margaret Drabble and Michael Holroyd
d Emma Wodehouse and George Knightley
3. In which year did the Prophet Mohammed die?
a 632 BC
b 60 AD
c 632 AD
d 1000 AD
4. Who was Alison Utley?
a The author of Little Grey Rabbit
b The creator of Brer Rabbit
c The creator of Peter Rabbit
d John Updike's biographer
5. Having won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in Stockholm, who said: 'Anyway, I'm not in the message business; I'm in the "Once Upon a Time" business.'
a Philip Pullman
b Little Red Riding Hood
c Marina Warner
d Angela Carter
Wednesday
1. At the siege of Béziers in 1209, more than 20,000 people were massacred in the space of two hours. When asked how to distinguish the good Catholics from the Jews and the Cathars, who said: 'Tuez-les tous; Dieu reconnaîtra les siens.' ('Kill them all; God will recognise his own.')?
a Saladin
b Papal Legate Arnald-Amalric, Abbot of Cîteaux
c Pope Honorius III
d Richard Coeur-de-Lion
2. Who turned down the John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize as a protest against the newspaper's anti immigration stance?
a Jake Arnott
b Michael Howard
c Enoch Powell
d Hari Kunzru
3. Which is the biggest selling novel by a woman of all time?
a To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
b Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J K Rowling
c The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
d The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
4. Whose first published volume of diaries was titled Out of the Wilderness?
a Piers Morgan
b Karen Blixen
c Tony Benn
d David Attenborough
5. Where is the religious festival of Timqat celebrated in January each year?
a Thailand
b Ethiopia
c India
d Mongolia
Thursday
1. In which year did Pope Gregory IX establish the Holy Inquisition under the control of the Dominican 'Black Friars'?
a 1033
b 1233
c 1433
d 1633
2. Which is now widely believed to be Shakespeare's last play?
a All's Well That Ends Well
b The Winter's Tale
c The Tempest
d The Duchess of Malfi
3. Who was Jean-François Champollion?
a The founder of the Olympic movement
b The woman who assassinated Marat in his bath in 1793
c The French Minister of the Interior during the Vichy Government
d The man who deciphered the secret of hieroglyphs in 1822
4. Who, when asked why he was always working, replied: 'Cuando llegue la inspiración, que me encuentre trabajando'? ('So that, when inspiration comes, it finds me working.')?
a Rudolph Nureyev
b Pablo Picasso
c Gabriel García Márquez
d Federico García Lorca
5. Whose second book was Affinity?
a Sarah Waters
b Stephen Hawking
c Valerie Martin
d Susan Greenfield
Friday
1. In order to receive absolution for all his sins, what was the minimum period of time a knight was expected to commit his services to a Crusade?
a 20 days
b 40 days
c 12 months
d For the duration of the military campaign
2. Which of Terry Johnson's plays includes characters resembling Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein and Joe DiMaggio?
a Legally Blonde
b The Lady's Not for Burning
c Hitchcock Blonde
d Insignificance
3. Who was the first woman ever to win the Booker Prize for Fiction?
a Margaret Atwood
b Jane Austen
c Bernice Rubens
d Anita Bruckner
4. What do the following have in common: Arthur Edward Waite, Andrea Mantegna, Baldini and Papus?
a They've all played for Inter Milan
b They all gave their names to decks of Tarot cards
c They've all sung Papageno in Die Zauberflote at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
d They all have commemorative plaques in the same street in Florence
5. What is the traditional symbol celebrating a 15th wedding anniversary?
a Wood
b Pearl
c Crystal
d Coral
Keep eating the oily fish!
There are no deceptions - except deliberate ones - in the Labyrinth.
ANSWERS!
Monday
1. Who was the founder of the dualist religion Manichaeism?
Answer a - A 3rd century Persian mystic called Mani
2. Which celebrated American novelist remarked, when visiting the Amalfi Coast, 'Positano bites deep.'?
Answer c - John Steinbeck
3.Who was the first ever winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction?
Answer b - Helen Dunmore (in 1996)
4. Where did Claude Debussy put the finishing touches to the proofs of his 1905 orchestral symphonic poem, La Mer?
Answer c - The Grand Hotel, Eastbourne (he composed the first draft in landlocked Burgundy!)
5. Where can the earliest literary reference to the Holy Grail be found?
Answer b - Chrétien de Troyes' Li Conte del Graal
(Although there are similarities between Chrétien's 1181 poem and certain Celtic mythologies and the Welsh Mabinogion, de Troyes' Story of the Grail work is widely accepted to be the first dedicated Grail romance.)
Tuesday
1. Who preached the religious campaign against the Cathars known as the Albigensian Crusade?
Answer a - Pope Innocent III
2. Which of these literary pairings are not couples in real life?
Answer d - Emma Wodehouse and George Knightley (although a couple, they are fictional characters from Jane Austen's Emma)
3. In which year did the Prophet Mohammed die?
Answer c - 632 AD
4. Who was Alison Utley?
Answer a - The author of Little Grey Rabbit
5. Having won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in Stockholm, who said: 'Anyway, I'm not in the message business; I'm in the "Once Upon a Time" business.'
Answer a - Philip Pullman
Wednesday
1. At the siege of Béziers in 1209, more than 20,000 people were massacred in the space of two hours. When asked how to distinguish the good Catholics from the Jews and the Cathars, who said: 'Tuez-les tous; Dieu reconnaîtra les siens.' ('Kill them all; God will recognise his own.')?
Answer b - Papal Legate Arnald-Amalric, Abbot of Cîteaux
2. Who turned down the John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize as a protest against the newspaper's anti immigration stance?
Answer d - Hari Kunzru
3. Which is the biggest selling novel by a woman of all time?
Answer a - To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
4. Whose first published volume of diaries was titled Out of the Wilderness?
Answer c - Tony Benn
5. Where is the religious festival of Timqat celebrated in January each year?
Answer b - Ethiopia (also in neighbouring Eritrea)
Thursday
1. In which year did Pope Gregory IX establish the Holy Inquisition under the control of the Dominican 'Black Friars'?
Answer b - 1233
2. Which is now widely believed to be Shakespeare's last play?
Answer c - The Tempest
(Henry VIII perhaps came after The Tempest, but is widely believed either to have been only partially written - or not written at all - by Shakespeare!)
3. Who was Jean-François Champollion?
Answer d - The man who deciphered the secret of hieroglyphs in 1822
4. Who, when asked why he was always working, replied: 'Cuando llegue la inspiración, que me encuentre trabajando'?
Answer b - Pablo Picasso
5. Whose second book was Affinity?
Answer a - Sarah Waters
Friday
1. In order to receive absolution for all his sins, what was the minimum period of time a knight was expected to commit his services to a Crusade?
Answer b - 40 days
2. Which of Terry Johnson's plays includes characters resembling Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein and Joe DiMaggio?
Answer d - Insignificance
3. Who was the first woman ever to win the Booker Prize for Fiction?
Answer c - Bernice Rubens
4. What do the following have in common: Arthur Edward Waite, Andrea Mantegna, Baldini and Papus?
Answer b - They all gave their names to decks of Tarot cards
5. What is the traditional symbol celebrating a 15th wedding anniversary?
Answer c - Crystal
