A tightly contested brute of a quiz. Lauren Leigh Hinthorne, Elizabeth Harrison, Donna Foster, John Palagyi, Adrian Hood, Alberto Lara, Mandy Holmes, Cornelia Remi and Adam Maguire all deserve commendation for an extraordinary 20/21 each.
But the clear winner with a perfect score of 21/21 was Alex Rea.
This guide to the answers is based on the generously referenced submission from Nigel Bell, to whom this exhausted question-master raises a glass.
Q1: Which of these is the highest branch of SpecOps?
A The Cheese Squad SO.23 (p.85, Something Rotten)
B Horticultural Enforcement Agency SO.32 (p.17, Lost in a Good Book)
C Literatec SO.27 (p.1, The Eyre Affair)
D Entertainments Facilities Department SO.33 (p.85, Something Rotten)
Q2: Who, on meeting Lady Emma Hamilton for the first time, exclaims ‘Who’s the bunny with the scrummy hooters’?
C St Zvlkx (p.172, Something Rotten)
A Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
B Mycroft Next
D Acheron Hades
Q3: If you were taking an Outlandish present to Elinor Dashwood, which of these would she most like to receive?
D Marmite (p.261, Lost in a Good Book)
A A flower-press
B Sparkling water
C Plain chocolate
Q4: What do Thursday's room number at the Finis (8128) and her military ID number (33550336) have in common?
D They are both perfect … 8128 is the 4th perfect number and 33550336 is the 5th.
A They are both happy primes
B They are an amicable pair
C They are both divisible by only 8 divisors
Q5: Which of these would be a correct answer on Mycroft's favourite game show?
B Kumquat! (p.93, The Eyre Affair)
A Who was George Washington?
C A Stitch In Time Saves Nine!
D Daphne Farquitt
Q6: Which of these is not true of the Outlandish England?
D There is a two-thirds-scale replica of Stratford-upon-Avon near Yokohama (It's a seven-eighths-scale replica, p.163, The Eyre Affair)
A England qualified for football's World Cup in 1978 (p143, The Eyre Affair)
B Led by John Frost, Wales declared its independence in 1854 (p.301, The Eyre Affair)
C The President of England can play the ukulele (p.293, Lost in a Good Book)
Q7: Which of these is not descriptive of The Cheshire Cat?
B An illicit blue cheese
A A bar in Swindon’s Finis Hotel (p.109, The Eyre Affair)
C The Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat (p.164, Lost in a Good Book)
D Archibald (p.264, Something Rotten)
Q8: Thursday first heard Courier Bold spoken by:
B An anonymous Thraal (p.58, The Well of Lost Plots)
A The Cheshire Cat
C Friday Next
D Kannon & Phodder, in unison
Q9: Which Dickens novel does Acheron find the most tedious?
A Our Mutual Friend (p.233, The Eyre Affair)
B Martin Chuzzlewit
C Hard Times
D Bleak House
Q10: What did Russia receive as reparation for The Crimean War?
C A chunk of cash and Tunbridge Wells (“Tunbridge Wells”: p.131, Lost in a Good Book & “a chunk of cash and Tunbridge Wells”: p.47, Something Rotten)
A A new history penned by Landen Parke-Laine
B Leigh Delamere Service Station
D Gold bullion and a variety performance hosted by Lola Vavoom
Q11: What is the most practical side of Mycroft Next’s game theory?
C Winning at Snakes and Ladders every time (p.63, The Eyre Affair)
A Providing cover to masquerade as Sherlock Holmes’ brother
B Gazumping estate agents when they try to buy a house
D Proving that Mah Jong does not exist
Q12: You meet Heathcliff in a bar in Los Angeles and he tells you to look him up on imdb. Which name should you click?
A Buck Stallion (p.128, The Well of Lost Plots)
B Heathcliff Williams
C Broody Linton
D Cliff Richard
Q13: Which of these is the odd one out?
D Mount Pleasant … is one of the non-existent Chapter 13’s (p.‘142’, Lost in a Good Book)
A Gad’s Hill Ch.2 (p.11, The Eyre Affair)
B Haworth House Ch.28 (p.285, The Eyre Affair)
C Dauntsey Services Ch.28 (p.251, Something Rotten)
Q14: Which of these is true of Swindon’s Brunel Centre?
D All of the above
A The Skyrail runs through it (p.28, Something Rotten)
B St Zvlkx may be found there pushing a peanut with his nose on a Sunday (p.171, Something Rotten)
C Similar goods have identical prices in different establishments (p.179, Something Rotten)
Q15: If you wanted to bookjump to retrieve the jacket Mycroft Next was given for Christmas by Polly, which should you read aloud?
B “The snow fell hissing in the brine and the billows frothed like yeast”
… The Wreck of the Hesperus stanza 6, lines 23/4.
A “Of loftiest shade, cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm, a silvan scene”
C “Continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the milky way”
D “Boldly they rode and well, into the jaws of Death, into the mouth of Hell”
Q16: Which of these is not a punnable character in the Thursday Next series?
C Bess Kepp-Lans
A Fawsten Gayle (p.47, Something Rotten)
B Brikk Shitt-Hawse (p.7/family name & p.313/first name, Lost in a Good Book)
[correction: Brik (one ‘k’) & Schitt]
D Cilla Bubb (p.341, Lost in a Good Book)
Q17: What is Wednesday Next’s DH-82?
C A Tasmanian Tiger (p.72, Lost in a Good Book)
A A Tiger Moth
B A Robot Butler
D A Dream Topping Additive
Q18: If you were Vladimir and Estragon, whom should you ask for the heads-up on Godot's whereabouts?
B Akrid Snell … both are Jurisfiction agents (p.105/6, The Well of Lost Plots)
A Acheron Hades
C Bowden Cable
D Brik Schitt-Hawse
Q19: Which of these has not been near “The owl and the pusssycat to sea in a boat”?
A Converbilator (p.80, The Well of Lost Plots)
B Verbisoid (p.80, The Well of Lost Plots)
C Adjectivore (p.80, The Well of Lost Plots)
D Speltificarious Molesworthian (p.81, The Well of Lost Plots)
Q20: Which of these authors would be safe from Yorrick Kaine’s book-burning imperative?
A Astrid Lindgren … a Swedish born authoress (b:14th Nov, 1907 - d: 28th Jan, 2002)
B Hans Christian Andersen (p.48, Something Rotten)
C Karen Blixen (p.48, Something Rotten)
D Daphne Farquitt (p.176 & p.266, Something Rotten)
Q21: And from Jasper himself, a final question requiring some ingenuity:
Q: What is Landen’s brother called?
Technically, as Nigel says:
There is no reference to Houson and Bilden having another child, but Landen says of Anton Next, “I loved him too, Thursday. He was the closest thing to a brother that I ever had…” (p.356, The Eyre Affair)
But this question from Jasper himself was an imaginative tiebreaker in advance of Landen’s brother (ever) appearing in the series. There were many marvellous guesses as to what it might be; Hotellon, Hilton and variations on Mort Gage were especially popular. The answer given by Jasper as he set the question and therefore definitively the right answer is Renton. Note the literary pedigree from Trainspotting.
Here’s how Anna Jacobson got there in exemplary fashion:
Landen's brother is yet to be mentioned in the series, however these are some possibilities: Winnun May Ffaire (step-brother) from Houson's previous marriage; Anton and Joffy Next (brother-in-laws); Renton Parke-Laine (unknown brother in an alternate time stream). After the chronoguard eradicated Landen, by forcing Billden not to rescue him when he is drowning, Houson and Billden Parke-Laine decide to try again and have another child. When Thursday meets them and claims to have been married to Landen, Houson gets upset and doesn't mention their other son Renton, who has left home but lives in the newly built granny flat out the back.