Did the Sun Ever Set? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Canada

"Anne of Green Gables" is the first in a series of novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery, about Anne Shirley, an orphan who comes to live in Prince Edward Island with Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla. She isn't the boy they had hoped to adopt, but things do work out eventually.

The first book was published in 1908, and has remained popular, along with its sequels, at least in part due to the many film and television adaptations that have been made.

Answer: United Kingdom

First published in 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson's "Kidnapped" is set in Scotland over a hundred years earlier, and follows the adventures of a young man named David Balfour, who is the kidnapping victim. He is rescued from this trouble, and joins forces with the man who has rescued him. The David Balfour story continues with "Catriona", published in 1893.

Answer: Southern Africa/East Africa

As with many of his novels, James A. Michener spends the first part of "The Covenant" setting the scene, with background information about South Africa going back hundreds, if not thousands of years, before settling into the more personal story of the protagonists of the work.

These include the Van Doorns, the Saltwoods and the Nxumalos, representatives of three distinct groups within the population of South Africa.

Answer: Australia/New Zealand

Although part of Nevil Shute's dystopian novel "On the Beach" takes place in a submarine off the coast of North America, the main story unfolds in Australia. This is the last place to be affected by the radioactivity spreading across the globe in the aftermath of nuclear war. All of the characters are aware that death is inevitable, and deal with it in their own way.

Answer: Canada

In "Two Solitudes", Canadian author Hugh MacLennan explores the tribulations caused in a country with two distinct founding cultures (French and English) and what happens when they come together as they do in the family at the centre of this novel. Language and religion both play a part in the story of French-Canadian Athanase Tallard, his Irish wife and their son Paul, in this work first published in 1945.

Answer: United Kingdom

Charles Dickens once claimed "David Copperfield" as his favourite of all the books he wrote. Set in Victorian England, and first published in 1850, it follows the title character from childhood to the eventual realisation of his talent as a novelist in adulthood. It has elements of autobiography, and is full of memorable characters like Steerforth, Mr Micawber, Uriah Heep and many others.

Numerous screen adaptations have made it familiar even to those of us who have not read the book itself.

Answer: Southern Africa/East Africa

First published in 1955, "Something of Value" by Robert Ruark is a tale based on what were then current events - the Mau Mau insurrection in Kenya. Two of the main characters are Peter and Kimani, childhood friends who find themselves on opposite sides of events. Members of Peter's family are attacked and killed by an insurgent group, and Peter seeks out Kimani, who has taken part in the attack in order to exact revenge.

Answer: Australia/New Zealand

If you are only familiar with the film version of Nevil Shute's "A Town Like Alice", you might protest that it takes place almost entirely in Malaya, and you'd be right - about the movie. Only at the end of the film do Jean Paget and Joe Harman reunite in Alice Springs.

In the book, the story continues into the Australian outback, post World War II, to the fictional town of Willstown, Queensland which the eventually reunited couple work to turn into the titular 'town like Alice' (finally making sense of the title). Jean uses money from an inheritance to set up a business to provide work for the locals, ably supported by Joe.

Answer: Canada

December 6, 1917 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada is the setting of "Barometer Rising", Hugh MacLennan's first novel, published in 1941. That was the day that the ships Mont Blanc and Imo collided in the harbour, causing an explosion that devastated parts of the city. The novel follows various members of the Wain family as they navigate their way through this horrible day. Daughter Penelope's lover, soldier Neil Macrae, also finds himself in the city at just the wrong time, as he tries to clear his name of unfounded charges.

As a personal note, this is a favourite book of mine, which has led me to read more widely about the Halifax Explosion, and to visit the city of Halifax as well.

Answer: United Kingdom

"Murder Must Advertise" (1933) sees Dorothy L. Sayers' hero, Lord Peter Wimsey, investigating a death at a London advertising agency, whilst using the alias Death Bredon. That the death was murder soon becomes apparent, especially when other suspicious deaths follow.

A gang dealing in cocaine seems to be involved, and Wimsey must try to get to the bottom of things. Sources say that Sayers herself didn't like this story very much, but I recall enjoying it when I read it some years ago.

Answer: Southern Africa/East Africa

Author John Gordon Davis was born in what was then Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and this is where he sets "Hold My Hand, I'm Dying" (1967). Essentially a love story involving a colonial commissioner named Joe Mahoney and a girl named Suzie, it necessarily touches on events of that turbulent time as well. Reader reviews at Goodreads tend to express exasperation with the love story and excessive descriptive prose.

Answer: Australia/New Zealand

Originally written in German, by Sarah Lark, and translated into English by D.W. Lovett, "In the Land of the Long White Cloud" is the first book of a trilogy set in nineteenth century New Zealand. It follows two women who meet on a ship headed to colonial New Zealand, each with the intention of marrying men they have yet to meet, but for different reasons. Things don't work out as planned and the women become each other's support system.

(Aotearoa, the Māori name for New Zealand, means 'land of the long white cloud'.)

Answer: Canada

At its heart, "Deafening" (2003) by Frances Itani, is a love story, whose heroine just happens to be deaf. Grania loses her hearing after a childhood illness and learns to cope in the years before the First World War in the eastern Ontario town of Deseronto, where her parents have an inn.

She attends the school for the deaf in nearby Belleville (it's still there) and meets and marries Jim, a hearing man, who goes off to fight in the war. I'll leave the outcome for readers to discover for themselves.

Answer: United Kingdom

The coal mining country of Wales is the setting for "How Green Was My Valley" (1939) by Richard Llewellyn. The men of the Morgan family are coal miners, but there's hope that the youngest son, Huw, might escape this fate through his studies. The story is narrated by the adult Huw, and the title hints that all does not go well in the valley.

Answer: Southern Africa/East Africa

"Rags of Glory" (1962) by Stuart Cloete is set in South Africa during the Second Boer War (1899-1902) and follows characters on both sides of that conflict. Personal stories and romance are interwoven with historical action, as is so often the case with this sort of historical fiction.

Answer: Australia/New Zealand

Australian author Colleen McCullough's "The Thorn Birds" (1977) is a tale of love, family, betrayal and more set at least in part on a sheep station in New South Wales, Australia. There's a Catholic priest who falls from grace, a woman who loves him, their son and the woman's many brothers, all acting out their lives between 1915 and 1969.

A television mini-series based on the novel proved quite popular.

Answer: Canada

"Who Has Seen the Wind" (1947), by W.O. Mitchell, is a rather gentle story of a boy growing up in the prairie province of Saskatchewan. That's about it, though one can become more philosophical about it and see it as the boy's awakening to the meaning of his life, and how to navigate all the bits and pieces of it. I've read it twice and though details have faded the sense of self-realisation remains when I think about the story. That, and a pair of hockey skates...

Answer: United Kingdom

John Buchan's wonderful novel "The Thirty-Nine Steps" (1915) begins in London, England then travels northward to Scotland with our hero, Richard Hannay, as he tries to solve the mystery of the steps of the title. Adventure ensues involving Hannay, spies, a dangerous villain and possibly even the safety of the country! If you were expecting a beautiful woman as love interest, you've likely seen one (or more) of the many film adaptations of the story, which introduce that plot line.

Answer: Southern Africa/East Africa

Botswana is where Precious Ramotswe operates "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency", created by author Alexander McCall Smith in 1998. This is the first book in the series that follows Precious and her colleagues as they try to find missing people, expose con men and even take on a malevolent witch doctor! Her methods are not always conventional, but she gets results.

Answer: Australia/New Zealand

"Until They Sail" is a component of James A. Michener's "Return to Paradise" (1951), and is set in New Zealand during WWII. "They" are US Marines stationed in New Zealand before venturing out to invade places like Tarawa, Saipan and Iwo Jima. The story involves the women who love them, at least "until they sail" and for some, even longer.