A Very British Book Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Avenue Goes to War

R.F. Delderfield had a talent for exploring social change through every day lives. "The Dreaming Suburb" and "The Avenue Goes to War" look at social change brought about by war as reflected in the lives of a group of families in a London suburb. We meet Edith Clegg, who, in the wake of World War 1, takes a job as a pianist to accompany silent films in the local cinema - a daring step.

Then there is Jim Carver. He returns from the trenches determined to make a better life for his family, but he finds his wife dead and he is left to bring up his children. "The Dreaming Suburb" looks in detail at the lives of four families between the two wars, whilst "The Avenue Goes To War" follows the same families through into World War 2.

In the second book the children are grown up and Jim Carver sees his twins enlist in the army, whilst his eldest son, Archie, has decided to end the war richer than he was when it started. Both books exemplify the way suburban Britain was at that period and how war changed attitudes towards women, class and a lot of other things.

Answer: John Le Carre

John Le Carre is the pen name of David Cornwell. Mr Cornwell worked for both MI5 and MI6 during the 1950s and 1960s and his books perfectly sum up that era. No-one on meeting him would ever think George Smiley was a spy. A minor civil servant perhaps, or an office clerk who had risen as high as he ever would.

Although no definite biography of Smiley is ever given we are led to believe, through the various books, that he was educated at a minor public school, went to a not very well known Oxford College, where he was recruited into the Intelligence Service.

He appears in eight books in total, some in a starring role, some as a minor character. "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" (1963) is Le Carre's most successful novel. It is set two years after the first appearance of George Smiley in "Call For The Dead", which was also his debut novel.

Answer: Barsetshire

The "Barchester Chronicles", as the six books in the series are generally referred to, are all set in and around the cathedral city of Barchester, set in the county of Barsetshire. Based somewhere in the west country, it is generally believed that Trollope used the city on Salisbury, which he visited often in connection with his job involving reorganising postal deliveries in southwest England.

The books all look at the political and social interplay between the clergy of the cathedral and the gentry of the city.

They give a wonderful picture of Victorian middle to upper class society of the time.

Answer: Up The Junction

"Up The Junction" was a collection of short stories that gave a very uncompromising view of working class life in the Battersea and Clapham Junction areas of London. It dealt with issues such as petty crime, casual sex, back street abortion and the every day struggle to just keep going. To some it was a view of a way of life in London that they just did not recognise, but for many it rang very true.

The book was later adapted into both a film and a television play.

Answer: Nancy Mitford

Nancy was the eldest daughter of Baron Redesdale, and is remembered for her novels about the English upper classes, which are both well observed and very funny. Most of the stories she tells are drawn from the lives of those around her. She and her sisters were part of the London social scene in the between-the-wars period. Having been presented to the Queen as a debutante, she was then free to enjoy all the social season had to offer.

All of the Mitford sisters were well known and each had their own claim to fame/notoriety. Nancy, despite little in the way of formal education, wrote. Her two best known books are "The Pursuit of Love" (1945) and "Love in a Cold Climate" (1949). Unity Mitford became known as a devotee of Hitler and Nazism. Diana Mitford was married to Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists and Deborah Mitford married the Duke of Devonshire.

Answer: Welsh miners

Richard Llewellyn originally claimed that he based the book on personal experience, although this was later proved to be untrue. In fact he based it on a series of interviews with Welsh mining families. Life is seen through the eyes of one character only, who narrates the book.

It describes not only the closeness of mining communities, but the harshness of life, especially at times of disaster. It also shows how hard, when it was taken for granted that son would follow father into the mines, it was for someone to break away and take a different career path.

Answer: Miss Read

Miss Read is an unmarried village school teacher. Her books have little plot as such, they just reflect life in an English village in the 1940s/1950s. There are occasional time slips when things relating to the 1970s creep in where they shouldn't, but lovers of the books are tolerant about these.

In Miss Read's world cottages are thatched, summers are hot and Christmases are white. Although they do describe villages that never actually existed they are a reflection of a way of life that rapidly disappeared after World War 2.

In a way the books are similar to Jane Austen in their description of social manners and interactions.

Answer: Brick Lane

Monica Ali was born in Bangladesh. Her family moved to England when she was three. "Brick Lane" is a street at the heart of the Bangladeshi community in London. It is about Nazneen, an eighteen year old girl from Bangladesh who moves to London to marry a man who is much older than she is. She speaks virtually no English and the book follows her adaptation into the local community, and her marriage.

The book was not without controversy. Some sections of the Bangladeshi community felt that they had been unfairly portrayed, whilst others felt the book showed immigrant communities in a very stereotypical way. When plans were made to turn the book into a film there was local opposition to any filming taking place in Brick Lane itself.

Answer: Edinburgh

"Trainspotting" is not an easy book to read. It is written in either Scots dialect, Scottish English or standard English depending on which character is "speaking". It is set around a group of young men living in Leith, Edinburgh, who are either drug addicts, alcoholics, addicted to violence, or have other social problems.

The descriptions it gives of modern day drug culture are not comfortable reading, and it is one of the few books to tackle this subject head on from the point of view of the addict.

It has, however, achieved a sort of cult status, which has been added to by the massive success of the 1996 Danny Boyle film based on it.

Answer: The Remains of the Day

"The Remains of the Day" is by Japanese-born British author Kazuo Ishiguro. Stevens, a butler, reflects on his life in service with Lord Darlington, his relationship with his father, who was chief butler to Lord Darlington before he was, and above all his relationship with Miss Kenton. Working together in the period before World War 2 they formed a close bond, which almost, but not quite, crossed the line into romance

Really it is a book about loyalty, dignity, putting others before yourself, but also about lost opportunity.

The book was Mann Booker Prize nominated and was made into a film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. The film received eight Oscar nominations.