The Island of Adventure Trivia Quiz

Answer: Craggy Tops

Craggy Tops is an old house, built into the cliff side. There is no electricity, and water must be drawn from a well cut deep into the cliff side. Phillip brings Jack and Lucy Ann home with him from his tutor's house, and, because Aunt Polly needs money badly, she agrees to let them stay for the summer.

Answer: Trent

Jack and Lucy Ann Trent are orphans, and usually spend the school holidays with an ageing uncle. Nobody is happy with the arrangement, so the children are thrilled at the prospect of a summer at the coast with their new friends Phillip and Dinah.

Answer: Jocelyn

Uncle Jocelyn has made it his life's work to write a history of the area around Craggy Tops. He is always so engrossed in his work that he barely notices what is going on around him, much like Uncle Quentin in the "Famous Five" series. Poor Aunt Polly is left to run the household, on a shoestring budget, as best she can, and is often tired and run down. Once the well is contaminated with sea water, she is pleased, because they have to move house. Uncle Jocelyn is not so pleased!

Answer: Jo Jo

In the original (1944) and other early editions of "The Island of Adventure", the handyman is named Jo Jo and his ethnic origins are made clear. In later editions, his name is shortened to Joe and no mention of his ethnicity is made.

Answer: Isle of Gloom

The Isle of Gloom has been abandoned since the mines there were worked out some years before the story is set. Like Kirrin Island in the "Famous Five" series, it is surrounded by rings of sharp rocks, and only someone who knows the way can make it safely to shore there.

Answer: Great Auk

Jack loves birds and bird watching, and is convinced he sees a Great Auk, through his binoculars, while they are sailing near the Isle of Gloom. Sadly, though, he never actually finds one.

Answer: Copper

Copper was mined on the Isle of Gloom, and Jack discovers a large nugget on his wanderings through the old passages. He reflects that it will be a good thing to show his schoolmates and provide proof of his adventures to them.

Answer: Counterfeiting money

The villains are busily counterfeiting money, using Aunt Polly's handy-man Jo-Jo (Joe in later editions) as their go-between. Bill and his colleagues have been trying to track down the gang for some time.

Answer: Down the well

The secret passage from Craggy Tops to the Isle of Gloom is marked on an old, old map belonging to Uncle Jocelyn. The landward end is a small aperture in the side of the well behind the house, and it connects with the extreme undersea end of the old mine workings on the island.

Answer: A huge thermos flask of tea

When the "baddies" blow up the underground tunnels on the Isle of Gloom, the sea water backs up into the secret passage and contaminates the well at Craggy Tops, leaving the house with no source of fresh water.

Later on in the "Adventure" series, Phillip and Dinah's mother Mrs. Mannering and Bill get married. In this book we hear the very first words she ever says to him, on receipt of said flask of tea: they are, "Oh, Bill! What an enormous flask! I've never seen such a giant!" :-D
(Just goes to show the way to a 1940s English woman's heart :D)