A tough quiz, with no overall winner. On a spectacular 19/20 were tied Emma Rigby, Alex Rea, William Rea, Cornelia Remi and Felicia Johnston. Our panel of judges have read their Scribbler tiebreakers and declare on that basis that the winner – by a squeak, they were all marvellous – is Felicia Johnston.
Q1: Where would you end up if you book-jumped by reading
“the whole hill-back was one billowy, white ocean”?
C: Thrushcross Park
If you bookjumped reading that description you'd end up in Wuthering Heights outside Thrushcross Park
Q2: Why did Napoleon quarrel with Mr Pilkington?
B: They each played the same ace in a hand of cards
Napoleon is here the pig of Animal Farm.
Q3: You are Sherlock Holmes. You notice mud spattered and caked
in several places on the sleeve of a woman. What do you deduce?
A: That she had travelled in a dog-cart
The woman is Helen Stoner, who visits Holmes at the start of The Speckled Band.
Q4: Your son is Victor, scientist and creator of monstrous life.
What’s your name?
B: Alphonse
The father of Frankenstein was called Alphonse.
Q5: From first to last, place these snapshots of Alice in order of Wonderland.
B: Three, Four, One, Two
Q6: In which of these books does the author NOT appear as their fictional self?
D: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
For those who were recently adventuring to save literature, the fictional version of our author Jasper Fforde took his Phorum pseudonym from Niebla and was imprisoned in ...Justified Sinner.
Q7: You are Mrs George Knightley. What is your maiden name?
C: Woodhouse
Mrs George Knightley is better known as Emma.
Q8: How and where is Alyona Ivanovna murdered?
C: With the axe in the front room
Not Cluedo, rather Crime and Punishment.
Q9: You are Dupin. An adversary has stolen an important letter and hidden it, knowing the police will search for it. Where should you look?
D: In his letter-rack
The Purloined Letter was hidden in the most obvious place one might look.
Q10: Which of these did not attend Jay’s funeral?
D: Tom
Only the first three attended the funeral in The Great Gatsby.
Q11: You are researching the occult in the British Library. You accept a file of papers passed to you by a fellow student who says he thinks it should be yours. Inside the file is a slip of paper with strange characters on it. What should you do next?
D: Use subterfuge to pass the slip back to your fellow
You've found yourself inside M.R. James' story Casting the Runes with a gruesome end awaiting unless you pass the slip back in time.
Q12: You are King Arthur. According to Malory, who is the last person you see before you die?
A: Three queens, including your sister Morgan Le Fay
The dying Arthur is accompanied by these three queens in the boat to Avalon.
Q13: Place these adventures of Pinocchio in order from first to last.
B: Four, One, Three, Two
Q14: You are conceived so that your mother can escape the gallows. Where do you meet her next to learn some disturbing news?
D: Virginia
...Moll Flanders meets her mother in Virginia to discover that her husband is her half-brother.
Q15: You are the Empress of Blandings. Who is the chief rival for your crown?
D: The Pride of Matchingham
You are a prize pig in the Blandings stories by P.G. Wodehouse.
Q16: Which of these does not appear in a vision to a Shakespearean king?
B: A dagger
A fiendish question that felled almost everybody. King Lear hallucinates a mouse in Act 4 Scene 6 - "Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace; this piece of toasted cheese will do 't". Macbeth sees the other three but, crucially, he sees the dagger BEFORE he is made king. This question was checked with an expert in Shakespeare from the RSC before publication...
Q17: Packing to get into a boat, where do three men eventually find
the lost butter?
A: On Harris’ trousers
From Three Men In A Boat, obviously.
Q18: Which of these was not also known by another name?
B: Winnie Verloc
Percy Blakeney masqueraded as The Scarlet Pimpernel, Arthur Radley was better known as Boo in To Kill A Mockingbird, Edgar transformed into Poor Tom in King Lear, but Winnie Verloc remained herself in The Secret Agent.
Q19: Which of these is not advertised on the gateway to Hell?
A: Hopeless Plains
The poem on the gates to Hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy lists the other three.
Q20: Which man was Thursday?
A: A policeman and poet
Gabriel Syme is the poet and secret policeman who is elected to the anarchist society official post of Thursday in G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday.