Inspired by Experience Trivia

1. A celebrated 18th century Italian adventurer, famed for his many love affairs, who wrote a memoir published in 12 volumes, called "History of My Life"?

From Quiz Setting my Story Right: Offbeat Autobiographies

Answer: Giacomo Casanova

Today, Casanova's name is synonymous with being a ladies' man and indeed his memoir describes his many love affairs in detail. However, there was much more to him than this, as he was also an adventurer and a talented writer. After making a daring escape from "the Leads", a notorious prison in his home country of Venice, he travelled widely and moved in European high society, meeting several crowned heads including Frederick the Great and Louis XV. Several times in his life he made fortunes through various bold schemes, which he squandered through his extravagant lifestyle. He wrote his memoirs in his old age while employed as a librarian by a nobleman, to keep himself entertained during this boring period of his previously exciting life.

From Quiz Fact, Fiction, Autobiography or Biography?

Answer: Fiction

Major James Bigglesworth MC - Biggles to his many friends - first appeared in print as a World War One pilot. Among the planes he flew was the Sopwith Camel. Biggles was the creation of W. E. John, who had served as a fighter pilot in WW1 - and gave himself the rank of 'Captain'. The character first featured in short story form in magazines in the 1920s and went on to appear in dozens of books up to the 1960s. His career path developed into aerial explorer, charter pilot, and flying policeman. The books were lapped up by children - mainly boys, frankly. However, as the decades passed, the stories were seen as non-PC. Biggles was accused of misogyny - there were few women in any of the books - and of stereotyping racial images. This quiz author still has his collection of Biggles books and refuses to listen to any criticism!

From Quiz Don't Worry, Be Happy

Answer: David Copperfield

'David Copperfield' was published as a novel in 1850, having appeared in serial form the previous year. It is considered to be autobiographical, with the character of Micawber representing the writer's father. Both John Dickens and Micawber end up in a debtor's prison due to their failure to meet their financial obligations. The 'Micawber Principle' is based on the character's saying 'Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty ought and six, result misery'. In other words, happiness is living within your means.

From Quiz Alexander the Great in fiction

Answer: A slave girl

Leptine is Manfredi's creation, a young and beautiful slave girl saved by Alexander; she stays with him for all his life. This character does not seem to be based on any historical person: according to the sources, Alexander apparently was not too much interested in girls, while in his teens.

From Quiz The Books of Travel Writers & Ex Pats.

Answer: Paul Theroux

Paul Theroux has led an interesting life. He was one of the first to join the Peace Corps in its initial induction and was later kicked out for helping a political member escape from Malawi. This experience really comes into play when he writes "Dark Star Safari" and expresses his dismay with the lack of modernization in Africa.

From Quiz Literary Inspirations From Life

Answer: 'A Moon for the Misbegotten'

All were O'Neill plays, but 'Moon' was based on his older brother, Jamie, who never quite made it in life. Jamie was a drinker who also liked women (of less than top quality). Tough life.

From Quiz Books of Social Consciousness

Answer: Kaffir Boy

Apartheid, ended only in 1994, was a strict system of racial segregation. Mathabane's book is moving and powerful.

From Quiz Setting my Story Right: Offbeat Autobiographies

Answer: Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley subtitled this work "An Autohagiography" (life of a saint), although his life was not at all saintly in the conventional sense. The frontispiece of this work features the author's signature in which the initial "A" is written like a phallic symbol. Crowley travelled much of the world while exploring the inner recesses of his psyche with magick (his preferred spelling), yoga, and mind-altering drugs, and he described these adventures in candid detail in his autobiography. His hedonistic lifestyle earned him notoriety, and he was nicknamed "the wickedest man in the world" by English tabloid newspapers. He was also one of the many famous people who appeared on the cover of the Beatles album "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

From Quiz Fact, Fiction, Autobiography or Biography?

Answer: Autobiography

"The Measure of a Man" was the autobiography of Sydney Poitier. Poitier was born of Bahaman parents while they were visiting Miami, Florida, in February 1927. He was brought up in the Bahamas, although his place of birth gave him US citizenship. Aged 15 he returned to Miami, then worked in various jobs and served in the US Army (briefly) in WW2. His acting career began on Broadway, but by 1949 he was making cinema his chosen artistic genre. An Academy Award nomination was to follow for "The Defiant Ones" (1958), and he won Best Actor for "Lilies of the Field" in 1963, The movie referred to in the question was "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?". It was released in 1968 and was the story of a black man entering into a relationship with a white woman. The storyline was still somewhat shocking in 1968, however the movie, which also starred Spencer Tracey and Katharine Hepburn, earned ten Academy Award nominations. The movie was directed by Stanley Kramer. His widow, Karen Sharpe-Kramer, later said: "The message Stanley wanted was that it was inhumane that people weren't allowed to get married. He didn't think any one film would change anybody's mind completely. But it could get them to think about it." She went on to say that in making the movie "we were right at the crest of change."

From Quiz Don't Worry, Be Happy

Answer: Alexandre Dumas, père

'The Count of Monte Cristo' tells the story of Edmond Dantès, who is wrongly imprisoned before escaping after fourteen years. He buys the island of Monte Cristo and the title of Count before setting out to avenge himself on the men who caused his imprisonment. At the same time he helps those who are deserving of assistance. The novel was written in 1844 and is one of Dumas's most popular works, along with 'The Three Musketeers' which dates from much the same time. The line appears in the novel as advice from the Count to another character in a letter, and is quoted twice in chapter 117.

From Quiz The Books of Travel Writers & Ex Pats.

Answer: Neil Peart

Admittedly, Peart's books don't cast a shadow to his drumming but it's still insight into a magical man.

From Quiz Literary Inspirations From Life

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

Sad lament after the assassination.

From Quiz Books of Social Consciousness

Answer: Huckleberry Finn

Nat Hentoff wrote a very good novel, 'The Day They Came to Arrest the Book', about the censorship struggle over 'Huckleberry Finn'.

From Quiz Setting my Story Right: Offbeat Autobiographies

Answer: Billy Hayes

While on holiday in Turkey, Hayes noticed that hashish was readily available, and that airport security was usually pretty lax, so he decided it would be fun to smuggle some back to the USA to share with friends. However, in a cruel twist of fate, the day he tried to board his plane home, the airport received a bomb threat, so security was immediately tightened, and all passengers were searched before boarding. Hence, he was caught and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Over the next five years, he exchanged many letters with his father in which they discussed his options for regaining his freedom. As these letters were routinely read by the authorities, they resorted to speaking in code to keep their plans secret. For example, working through the legal system to try to shorten his sentence was called "taking the slow train," while the option of escaping, which he eventually went with, was referred to as "the Midnight Express." A film of the same name starring Brad Davis was loosely adapted from the book and has been blamed for nearly destroying the Turkish tourism industry.

From Quiz Fact, Fiction, Autobiography or Biography?

Answer: Autobiography

The war correspondent was Edward Behr, who was born in Paris to Russian-Jewish parents in 1926. He died there in 2007. Educated in London, he served with the British Indian Army. In the late 1950s, he became Paris correspondent for "Time-Life" magazine. He went on to work as war correspondent in many trouble spots, including the conflicts in the Congo, Algeria, Lebanon, Angola and Northern Ireland. His memoirs "Anyone Here Been Raped and Speaks English?" were published in 1978. The title refers to a habit of western journalists of seeking out victims of conflict in Africa and Asia but being unable to converse with any who could not speak English.

From Quiz Don't Worry, Be Happy

Answer: The Little Engine That Could

The story originated in the United States in the early part of the twentieth century although it cannot be attributed to a particular author. The best known version dates from 1930 under the title 'The Pony Engine' and written by Watty Piper. The story was reissued in 1954 under its current name. It tells how the smallest engine in the yard agrees to take a train over a mountain after bigger and stronger engines refuse. As it struggles up the slope it keeps repeating 'I think I can' changing to 'I thought I could' as it achieves its goal and descends the far side. The story was made into an animated film in 1991 and Burl Ives sang a song based on the tale.

From Quiz Alexander the Great in fiction

Answer: Alexander himself

Stephen Pressfield decided to make Alexander the speaking person: the novel is composed in the form of the diary that Alexander dictates to Itanes, his secretary and the brother of his beloved wife Roxana. Although Itanes does have a few words to say at the end of the novel, it is Alexander's voice that we hear most of the time.

From Quiz The Books of Travel Writers & Ex Pats.

Answer: Mark Twain

The secondary title of this work was billed 'The New Pilgrims' Progress' after the well known religious work by John Bunyan.

From Quiz Literary Inspirations From Life

Answer: John Updike

'Buchanan Dying' is described as a play that is meant to be read. Talk about a strange subject for a play ...

From Quiz Books of Social Consciousness

Answer: Silent Spring

'For the first time in the history of the world,' Carson wrote, 'every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals from the moment of conception until death.' DDT, a pesticide, was banned soon after the appearance of her book.

From Quiz Setting my Story Right: Offbeat Autobiographies

Answer: Reg and Ron Kray

The Kray twins were highly feared, very violent, crime lords involved in racketeering, extortion, and gambling, among other activities, for many years before going to prison in 1969. Ron Kray murdered rival gangster George Cornell, allegedly because the latter called Ron "a big fat poof" in front of representatives of the American mafia. Kray later denied this was the reason, claiming that the killing was in revenge for a murder committed by Cornell. Reg Kray was encouraged by Ron to murder fellow gang member, Jack "the Hat" McVitie, after the latter had publicly threatened Reg. The book was co-written with a ghost writer, Fred Dinenage. Some chapters in their memoir are credited to both twins jointly, while others are credited to either Reg or Ron individually. Ron died of a heart attack while still in custody in 1995. Reg was released from prison in 2000 on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal cancer and died a few months later.

From Quiz Fact, Fiction, Autobiography or Biography?

Answer: Fiction

G. F. Newman's novel was based on a four-part series that he wrote for the BBC and which was first broadcast in 1978. The parts were "A Detective's Tale"; "A Villain's Tale"; "A Brief's Tale" and "A Prisoner's Tale". The story was based around a London career criminal called Jack Lynn (played on TV by Peter Dean) who was arrested for an armed robbery he had not committed. He was fitted up by Detective Inspector Fred Pyall (played by Derek Martin) on the basis that if he had not done that robbery, he was guilty of something else anyway.

From Quiz Don't Worry, Be Happy

Answer: Noel Coward

This was a rare excursion into the life of the working class by Coward, although he was at pains to point out that he came from a suburban background. The title comes from Shakespeare, appearing in a speech by John of Gaunt in the play 'Richard II'. Staging of the play was delayed by the outbreak of the Second World War and it was first performed in 1942 with Coward himself in the cast. Rattigan is the only other option which might have fitted as he also wrote about the upper and middle classes. His works include 'The Winslow Boy' from 1946. Pinter and Osborne both date from a later time and also concentrate on the lower classes. Pinter's plays include 'The Birthday Party' from 1957 and Osborne created the 'angry young man', notably in 'Look Back in Anger' in 1956.

From Quiz Alexander the Great in fiction

Answer: It symbolizes the British rule over India

Menem used the episodes from Alexander's conquest of Persia to create a brilliant metaphor of the colonial times and the British rule over India. The novel is witty, intelligent and well worth reading!

From Quiz The Books of Travel Writers & Ex Pats.

Answer: Freya Stark

Besides writing over two dozen books, she was an accomplished cartographer, an achieved linguist, and during World War II she worked for the British government attempting to recruit the Arabs to side with the Allies.

From Quiz Literary Inspirations From Life

Answer: e.e. cummings

His most famous poem, I believe.

From Quiz Books of Social Consciousness

Answer: I, Rigoberta Menchu

Menchu was accused of fabricating parts of her moving {story;} for example, a younger brother whom she said starved to death in the fields is actually alive and well with a wife and children. Menchu responded to the accusations by saying that her book was not her story per se, but the story of the Guatemalan people as a whole.

From Quiz Setting my Story Right: Offbeat Autobiographies

Answer: Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was famous for his many surreal paintings, especially "The Persistence of Memory", which features the celebrated image of soft watches. He described his paintings as "hand painted dream photographs." His autobiography is a very strange book that provides a striking insight into Dali's inner life, including some bizarre fantasies and outlandish claims, such as being haunted by the ghost of his late elder brother, while still in the womb!

From Quiz Fact, Fiction, Autobiography or Biography?

Answer: Fiction

Written in 1938, "Scoop" was the British novelist Evelyn Waugh's satire on journalism and war reporting. Although fiction, he based characterisations on real journalists he knew. Waugh had also covered the war in Abyssinia for the "Daily Mail". It was the tale of a young journalist who contributes nature notes to an English national newspaper, "The Daily Beast". Through a series of misunderstandings, he is sent to east Africa to report on a war. "Scoop" has been listed as one of the most important British novels of the 20th century.

From Quiz Don't Worry, Be Happy

Answer: Alexander McCall Smith

The novels feature the character of Precious Ramotswe, with the first book being published in 1998 and production of new volumes still ongoing. 'In the Company of Cheerful Ladies' came out in 2004 and was followed by another candidate for the quiz - 'Blue Shoes and Happiness' - in 2006. The books are set in Botswana in southern Africa, where McCall spent time as a law lecturer at the university between 1981 and 1984. Some of the stories were adapted for television in a joint venture between the UK's BBC and America's HBO in 2008 and 2009 with Jill Scott in the lead role.

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