'The Mallen Litter' Trivia Quiz

Answer: Brigie

This was short for 'Brigadier', the 'behind-her-back' nickname the Bensham children and Barbara used for their governess when they were growing up. It was based on her maiden surname of 'Brigmore' and the fact that she liked things to be done just-so.

Answer: France

Barbara went happily to France with her new husband, because she wanted to get away from her childhood home and all the misery she left there - Sarah's loss of a leg due to her jealous rage and the hatred she felt for Anna.

Answer: he had a white streak in his hair

Ben Bensham carried the 'mark' which had shown on generations of Mallen males, including Donald Radlet, Thomas Mallen and Dick Mallen (all three characters from the first book in the Trilogy, 'The Mallen Streak'). The fact that her son had this pigment in his hair was a source of great distress to Barbara who preferred to forget that Thomas Mallen raped her mother.

Answer: Barbara and Constance

Barbara Bensham overheard Pat Ferrier refer to her triplet sons as 'the Mallen Litter', upsetting her twice, in referring to her grandfather, Thomas Mallen, and calling the babies a 'litter'. Constance was upset because Pat Ferrier had been courting her until he found that the farm did not belong to her as Donald's widow, but her son, Michael, and then Pat went on to marry Katie instead.

Answer: nursemaid

She was the third nursemaid engaged in as many months - but Ruth was not going to let Ben get the better of her. In fact, it was Ben's championship of her when Barbara was ready to dismiss her that saved her job. Ruth was to be the mother that Barbara was not prepared to be to the least-loved of her triplet sons.

Answer: Friday

After Michael saw Barbara with the boys in Newcastle, he wrote to her and there started a clandestine relationship which was to last the rest of their lives.

Answer: he had gone to the dentist

Barbara had refused to take Ben out with her, and he followed her to the woods at the end of the road, where he saw her with her lover. Ruth found the boy and it was while she was persuading him not to say anything that Dan found out the truth about his wife. Dan was to have a long-lasting affair with Ruth, and to the end of the book they were still seeing each other, and Ben still saw Ruth as a mother figure.

Answer: the navy

They were to be killed in action, while Ben was to suffer 'shell shock' from life in the trenches, and be sent to the military hospital which had been set up in his family home at High Banks.

Answer: she had been married and used her married name

Hannah married Arthur Pettit in order to escape the farm and the bitterness which surrounded the people there. Her father's regular visits to Barbara Bensham were common knowledge, and the loss of her mother's leg had warped her mind, turning her into a bitter woman. Being assigned to one-to-one nursing with Captain Bensham in the hospital at High Banks was something Hannah took in her stride, although her family at Wolfbur was not happy about it.

Answer: Lawrence

Hannah had gone back to the farm after the dual suicide of her father with Barbara in the cottage they used for their assignations. In love with her, Ben wanted to let her know, but it was the intervention of his cousin Lawrence which forced him to face his fears and travel over to the hill farm to see her.

There he overheard an argument between Hannah, Sarah and Constance to learn that she loved him in return. So ends the saga of the Mallens.