A Book Title Creature Feature Trivia Quiz

Answer: Muriel Barbery

Muriel Barbéry is a French philosophy teacher whose second book, 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog' ('L'élégance du hérisson' in the original French), was an international bestseller. It is narrated by two central characters: Renée Michel, a middle-aged concierge with a secret love of art and philosophy, and Paloma Josse, a precocious young girl who lives in Renée's building and plans to kill herself on her thirteenth birthday. Paloma compares Renée to a hedgehog because she is prickly on the outside, but 'simply refined' on the inside. Renée and Paloma strike up a friendship despite their age differences, due to having common interests. Like her creator, Renée also has an interest in Japanese culture and befriends Kakuro Ozu, a Japanese man living in the building.

Answer: Roman Britain

Rosemary Sutcliff specialised in historical fiction for children; many of her stories were set in ancient Britain, such as 'Song for a Dark Queen' (about Boudicca) or her Arthurian trilogy. 'The Eagle of the Ninth' is a series set in Roman Britain, in 2 AD, and starting with the titular book about Marcus, a young Roman soldier investigating the disappearance of his father's legion.

The 'eagle' in question refers to the eagle standard carried by the legion, which Marcus later finds; his surname, 'Aquila', also means eagle in Latin.

The book was inspired by a bronze casting of an eagle housed in Reading Museum, the Silchester Eagle, which dated back to Roman times. 'The Eagle of the Ninth' was adapted as a film, 'The Eagle', in 2011, starring Channing Tatum as Marcus and Jamie Bell as Esca, his former slave.

Answer: Hercule Poirot

'Cat Among the Pigeons' is one of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries, although the detective himself does not appear until late in the novel; Julia Upjohn, a pupil at the school, knows Poirot and alerts him when she finds jewels in her friend Jennifer's tennis racket, which was supposedly given to her by her aunt.

The jewels, which are from the fictional Middle Eastern country of Ramat, were smuggled out by Bob Rawlinson, a pilot; Rawlinson hid the jewels in the luggage of his sister Joan, Jennifer's mother. Three of the teachers at the girls' school are murdered: two shot dead by the culprit and one killed by another teacher with a sandbag.

The culprit is revealed to be Ann Shapland, the headmistress' secretary, who is also a secret agent known as 'Angelica'.

She had been in Ramat three months earlier and spied on Rawlinson, and followed the jewels to the UK.

Answer: Henry II

'The Lion in Winter' is set during Christmas 1183, during the reign of King Henry II of England, and features the power struggles and political manoeuvring between Henry himself, his estranged wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France, and their sons, Richard (who would go on to be King Richard I, aka Richard the Lionheart), Geoffrey and John.

Although the play was based on real events, it is heavily fictionalised; for example, there is no historical evidence to suggest that Henry was having an affair with Alais Capet. 'The Lion in Winter' was made into a film in 1968 and won multiple awards, including three Academy Awards for Goldman's screenplay, John Barry's score and Katharine Hepburn's role as Eleanor. Peter O'Toole played Henry, while a young Anthony Hopkins played Richard.

Answer: A helicopter

The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is an army helicopter named after Black Hawk, a Sauk chief. One of the central incidents of the Battle of Mogadishu, between US forces and the Somali National Alliance leader Mohamed Farrah Aidid, was the shooting down of two Black Hawks by Somali forces.

The battle occurred during Operation Gothic Serpent, a US military operation to capture Aidid in 1993. 'Black Hawk Down' is based on a series of articles written by Bowden about the conflict, in which he interviewed participants on both sides. Bowden also posted video and radio footage from the conflict online as part of a multimedia project for the 'Philadelphia Inquirer'.

A film of the book was made in 2001 by Ridley Scott, starring Ewan McGregor, Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom amongst others.

Answer: A Song of Ice and Fire

'A Feast for Crows' was the fourth book in Martin's bestselling 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series and was also adapted for the fifth season of 'Game of Thrones', the TV adaptation of the books (albeit with a few differences). It debuted at Number 1 on the 'New York Times' bestseller list; Martin was the first fantasy writer to achieve this since Robert Jordan, the creator of 'The Wheel of Time'.

The original manuscript for 'A Feast for Crows' was so big that it had to be split in two; rather than being split in half chronologically, 'A Feast for Crows' and the fifth book, 'A Dance with Dragons', took place simultaneously in different settings, with the former being set in the land of Westeros and the latter being set in various other places. Plots include the warrior Brienne of Tarth's search for Sansa Stark, who is in hiding, and Sansa's sister Arya joining the Faceless Men, a group of assassins.

Answer: Autism spectrum disorder

'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' is about Christopher Boone, a teenager with autism/Asperger's syndrome (although Haddon has stated that the book is 'not a book about Asperger's') who lives with his father. Although he is extremely intelligent, he has poor social skills and suffers from meltdowns, often triggered by sensory overload. One of his special interests is Sherlock Holmes mysteries, and he becomes invested in solving the 'mystery' when the dog next door, a black poodle, is impaled with a rake.

He eventually uncovers the truth about his family, finding out that his mother, who he had been told died of a heart attack, is actually alive and living in London, and that his father killed the dog. Christopher becomes frightened of his father and runs away to London to live with his mother, having nightmarish experiences on the Tube.

The book was adapted as a play by Simon Stephens and premiered in 2012.

Answer: Narnia

'The Horse and His Boy' is the penultimate book in CS Lewis' 'Chronicles of Narnia' series, but is chronologically the third, as it takes place during the period in 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' when the Pevensie children are kings and queens of Narnia.

Much of the story takes place in the land of Calormen. The horse in question is Bree, a talking horse who belongs to a Calormene nobleman, and his boy is Shasta, the adopted son of a Calormene fisherman, who is actually Prince Cor of Archenland. Shasta escapes with Bree, on learning that he is to be sold to Bree's owner as a slave. Bree and Shasta travel to Narnia and on their way, they encounter Aravis, a temperamental Tarkheena (Calormene noblewoman) escaping an arranged marriage, and Hwin, her talking mare.

The four uncover a plot to kidnap Queen Susan and force her into marriage with Rabadash, the Prince of Calormen.

Answer: Philip K Dick

'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' was heavily influenced by the work of L Ron Hubbard, and itself was an influence on cyberpunk culture. In the dystopian future created by Philip K Dick, set in San Francisco, most animal species have died out, the Earth is recovering from a nuclear war, and humans have their own android servants, humanoid robots who are almost impossible to distinguish from humans. Pets are a status symbol and those who cannot afford live animals have electric versions. Rick Deckard, the hero, is a policeman charged with hunting down and killing six renegade androids who have escaped from off-world colonies.

He also owns an electric black-faced sheep like the ones pictured here. In 'Blade Runner', which starred Harrison Ford as Deckard, the androids were changed to bioengineered beings known as 'replicants'.

Answer: The Rabbit Alternative

Harry Angstrom is nicknamed 'Rabbit' because he looked like one as a child, and is a former high school basketball star turned kitchen gadget salesman, who works in various other dead-end jobs throughout the series. He is married to Janice, with whom he has an on-off relationship, and has a son called Nelson.

The books of the 'Rabbit' series are 'Rabbit, Run' (written in 1960), 'Rabbit Redux' (1971), 'Rabbit is Rich' (1981), 'Rabbit at Rest' (1990), and 'Rabbit Remembered' (2001). The latter is a novella set after Rabbit's death, which acts as a postscript to the original series. Updike won the Pulitzer Prize for 'Rabbit is Rich' and 'Rabbit at Rest'. ('The Rabbit Alternative' is a reference to 'The Wilt Alternative', one of the books in Tom Sharpe's 'Wilt' series.)