A Waugh of Words Trivia Quiz

Answer: Portnoy's Complaint

Whilst I'm sure E.L. Lust is a fantastic romance author, the deadly sin we were looking for here was 'wrath', sometimes called 'anger' when you're feeling a bit less irate. Depending on how you pronounce it (apologies if your pronunciation differs!), 'wrath' sounds a lot like the surname of American author Philip Roth.

Philip Roth is one of the most prolific and decorated authors of the second half of the 20th Century. Like many great authors, Roth's rise to fame was precipitated by controversy. In his case, the book that saw him rise to prominence was 'Portnoy's Complaint', which caused a stir thanks to the unconventional sexual behaviour it portrays. His later works include 'American Pastoral' and 'The Human Stain', and he retired from writing in 2010.

Answer: Tom Jones

There are many ways to describe what cricket players spend a lot of their time doing, but 'standing around' and 'applying sun cream to their noses' don't make for very common surnames. 'Fielding', on the other hand, is a fairly common surname, exemplified by 18th Century British writer Henry Fielding.

By far Fielding's most popular work is 'The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling', usually known as 'Tom Jones'. Somewhat disappointingly, the novel doesn't track the early life of a Welsh singing sensation, but does provide one of the "three most perfect plots ever planned" according to Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It is also one of the earliest books to be called a novel, so I guess it's not unusual to give it its due.

In addition to writing prolifically, Fielding was also involved in the formation of the Bow Street Runners, the first professional police force in London.

Answer: Mending Wall

There's nothing quite like a crisp frost on a winter's morning, and there aren't many poets that can live up to the prowess of American poetry giant Robert Frost.

Winning no less than four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry, I think we can all agree that Robert Frost can turn a phrase. Frost's 'The Road Not Taken' muses on how our lives are a series of decisions in which alternatives must necessarily fall by the wayside, and is one of the best known poems of the 20th Century. 'Mending Wall' is another classic, ending with the immortal line "good fences make good neighbours".

Frost read his poem 'The Gift Outright' at the inauguration of President Kennedy at the grand old age of 86. He was due to read a different poem that he had written specifically for the occasion, but the glare of the sun forced him to change when he couldn't read the page he was supposed to be reading from.

Answer: All Quiet on the Western Front

The 'k' of the word 'remark' was clearly too harsh for the novelist Erich Maria Remarque, who despite his French-sounding surname was actually born in Germany.

While he is by no means a one-hit wonder (he published over 15 novels in his lifetime), the work for which Remarque is best remembered is 'All Quiet on the Western Front'. The book is an extremely distressing portrait of life as a German soldier during the First World War, and was based on the author's own experiences. The book was adapted into a film just the year after its release, earning an Oscar for director Lewis Milestone.

The Nazi Party did not like Remarque's depiction of war at all, and propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels publicly burned his books in 1933. After this event Remarque moved to Switzerland, and then on to the United States several years later.

Answer: Herzog

You can shout or scream or roar, but if you really want to be heard, nothing can beat a good old bellow. Whilst Canadian-American author Saul Bellow may not be known for his booming oration, his reputation on the page is surpassed by few authors.

'Herzog' is a portrait of the middle-aged failing academic and divorce Moses E. Herzog as he struggles to come to term with his life. It is one of Bellow's most widely read novels, along with 'The Adventures of Augie March' and 'Henderson the Rain King'.

Bellow was the first author to win the National Book Award for Fiction three times, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976.

Answer: A Bear Called Paddington

In chemistry, covalent and ionic are both types of bonds, or ways in which electrons are distributed between two atoms. The bond we were looking for here was not chemical, but was instead British children's author Michael Bond.

Bond was the creator of the beloved children's character Paddington Bear. Beginning with 'A Bear Called Paddington' in 1958, Bond wrote more than 20 books about the bear, continuing to publish up until his death in 2017. His other children's books include the 'Olga Polga' and 'Monsieur Pamplemousse' series.

Despite only being 17 at the time, Bond served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

Answer: White Fang

Capitals make capital names don't you think? From actress SOFIA Vergara to composer and lyricist Irving BERLIN, capitals are all the rage. The salient city in this case was London, namesake of the American author Jack London.

Many of London's most famous writings were inspired by the time he spent in Yukon Territory in Canada during the Klondike gold rush. 'White Fang' is the story of a part wolf, part dog who is born wild but is gradually domesticated by humans. The entire book is told from the dog's perspective, often showcasing the brutality of humankind towards other animals. 'The Call of the Wild' is almost the opposite of 'White Fang', in that the canine protagonist Buck moves from California to the Klondike and becomes more feral as the novella progresses.

Answer: I, Claudius

Realistically you can place a corpse pretty much anywhere, but the grave (namesake of British author Robert Graves) remains a popular choice, despite the rise of cremation as an alternative post-life option.

Robert Graves was something of a literary polymath, distinguishing himself not only by his novels (of which 'I, Claudius' is the most famous), but also by his poems, memoirs, and academic studies of Greek myth. In fact, it is often said that Graves largely published his more popular works such as 'I, Claudius' in order to finance the less-profitable work in which he was actually more interested.

Graves was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, but the contest was won by American author John Steinbeck.

Answer: A Modest Proposal

Whilst there are plenty of avian names out there, the Apodidae family is home to the birds commonly known as swifts, and so the author we were looking for was Irish humorist Jonathan Swift.

His most famous work is undoubtedly 'Gulliver's Travels', a satire in which the title character travels to various lands with differing political systems. It has been adapted for television, radio and cinema, as well as into a violin suite by German composer Georg Philipp Telemann.

'A Modest Proposal' is a deadpan satirical essay in which Swift suggests that the best way to prevent poor children from becoming a burden on society would be for others to eat them. What a joker!

Answer: The Joy Luck Club

Popular even amongst the palest, most melanoma-prone people in the world, tanning is the process by which ultraviolet light causes the skin to change colour. Completely unrelated to the word with which she shares her name, Amy Tan is a Chinese-American author.

Tan is known for writing about the experience of Chinese Americans in the United States. Her most famous novel is 'The Joy Luck Club', about a group of Chinese American families in San Francisco who form the namesake club to play mahjong for money. It was adapted into a 1993 film by the director Wayne Wang.

Some of Tan's work has drawn criticism for the way it portrays Chinese culture, with some readers believing that it is too quick to agree with the typical American perspective of Chinese people in the United States.