"A"mazing Authors Trivia Quiz

Answer: Piers Anthony

Born Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob in 1934 in the English university city of Oxford, he has published more than 150 novels in a writing career of almost half a century. His first novel, "Chthon", published in 1967, was nominated for the 1967 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1968 Hugo Award in the same category.

Anthony is perhaps best-known for the still-expanding "Magic of Xanth" series, which already spans more than 40 books. The series, which was originally supposed to be a trilogy, began in 1977 with "A Spell for Chameleon". Geographically, the Xanth world mirrors the U.S. state of Florida, where Anthony now lives, but within it can be found well-known landmarks from around the world. This fantasy universe is populated by humans, each of whom is born with a unique magical ability. You will also come across centaurs, demons, dragons, gargoyles, goblins, nymphs, ogres, zombies and many other weird and wonderful creatures as you travel around this wonderful universe.

Answer: Greek

Aesop was an Ancient Greek writer, probably in the historic region of Thrace on the coast of the Black Sea. He was known to have been born a slave, but later became a free man. He was executed by being thrown from a cliff top in the city of Delphi in 564 B.C., although it seems likely that the charges against him were falsified.

No actual writings by Aesop have survived, and it seems likely that many of the stories credited to him have been added from other cultures over time. The underlying theme of fables credited to Aesop is of animals and various objects that speak and display other human characteristics.

Answer: Flowers in the Attic

Born Cleo Virginia Andrews in 1923 in Portsmouth, Virginia, she wrote under the names V.C. Andrews and Virginia C Andrews. Written in the first person through the eyes of Cathy Dollanganger, "Flowers in the Attic" was a controversial bestseller. More than 40 million copies were sold even though it was banned in numerous places due to the incestuous relationship between two adolescent siblings.

Kristy Swanson played Cathy in the 1987 film version, with Oscar-winner Louise Fletcher as the evil grandmother, Olivia Foxworth. In the 2014 adaptation, Ellen Burstyn starred as Olivia with Kiernan Shipka playing Cathy.

Answer: Brian Aldiss

Brian Wilson Aldiss was born in 1925 in the town of East Dereham in central Norfolk. A veteran of the Royal Signals Corps, he saw action in Burma during WWII and based some of his early stories on that experience. His novels include "Hothouse", set in a future Earth which has stopped rotating, "Greybeard", set on an Earth where nuclear bomb tests have sterilized the population, and the "Helliconia" trilogy, an epic tale set on an Earth-like planet where each season lasts for centuries.

The winner of a Nebula Award, a John W. Campbell Memorial Award and two Hugo Awards, Aldiss was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2000, he was named as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America.

Answer: Ivo Andric

He was born Ivan Andric in 1892 in the central-Bosnian town of Travnik. He was arrested following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914, and remained under house arrest throughout most of WWI. After the war he became a member of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia's diplomatic service and was appointed ambassador to Germany in 1939. He returned to German-occupied Belgrade in 1941, where he remained for the rest of WWII.

Although many of his works had been translated into numerous languages, Andric was still relatively unknown outside the East European Communist Bloc when he was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature. Documents released 50 years later showed that the other writers on that year's short-list were J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Frost, John Steinbeck and E.M. Forster.

The alternatives are the other three "A" authors who won the Nobel Prize in its first 100 years. Although born in Austria-Hungary, Shmuel Yosef Agnon claimed Israeli nationality when he shared the 1966 prize with Sweden's Nelly Sachs. Miguel Ángel Asturias, Guatemalan novelist and poet, won in 1967 and the Spanish poet Vicente Aleixandre won in 1977.

Answer: Jean M. Auel

Born Jean Marie Untinen of Finnish descent in 1936 in Chicago, Illinois, she writes under her married name, Jean M Auel. She became an instant household name following the publication of the first novel in her "Earth's Children" series, "The Clan of the Cave Bear" in 1980. The book was adapted for a 1986 film starring Daryl Hannah. The sixth and final novel in the series, "The Land of Painted Caves", was published in 2011.

Answer: Mostly Harmless

Richard George Adams was born in 1920 in the Berkshire town of Newbury. A former President of the RSPCA (Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), he wrote a new story for the 2010 charity book, "Gentle Footprints", to raise funds for the "Born Free Foundation". He celebrated his 95th birthday in 2015 in the Hampshire town of Whitchurch (just a few miles from his birthplace), where he has lived for more than 30 years.

"Mostly Harmless" was written by an iconic English "A" author, but the fifth book in the "Hickhiker's Guide" series is by Douglas Adams rather than Richard.

Also by Richard Adams, "Shardik" tells the story of a hunter pursuing the title character, a giant bear; "Maia" is set in the same fantasy world as "Shardik" and relates the story of a peasant girl sold into slavery; and "The Girl in a Swing" is the strange story of two newlyweds.

Answer: Massachusetts

Louisa May Alcott was born in 1832 in the Philadelphia suburb of Germantown, Pennsylvania. She grew up in New England, where she and her three sisters associated with many of the greatest writers and intellectuals of the era such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau. The semi-autobiographical "Little Women" was set in the family home, Orchard House, in the town of Concord in eastern Massachusetts.

"Little Women" is recognized today as one of the all-time classic children's novels. Writer Henry James described Alcott as "The novelist of children... the Thackeray and the Trollope of the nursery and the schoolroom".

Answer: Alfred Austin

Alfred Austin was born in 1835 in Headingley, a suburb of Leeds. A barrister by trade, he gave up the legal profession to write when he inherited a fortune. Austin was appointed to the vacant Poet Laureate post after others considered more suitable had either turned it down or been ruled out for non-literary reasons, and there was speculation that his appointment was due to his friendship with and support for Prime Minister Lord Salisbury. Austin was not highly rated by his peers either, and was described as a 'Banjo Byron'. Austin was Poet Laureate for 17 years and was succeeded on his death in 1913 by Robert Bridges.

Of the alternatives, Richard Aldington was a WWI poet who later wrote an award-winning biography of The Duke of Wellington and a controversial one of Lawrence of Arabia; W.H. Auden was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet born in England who became an American citizen following WWII; and Matthew Arnold was a Victorian-era poet from a famous literary family whose works concentrated mostly on social issues.

Answer: Jeffrey Archer

Born in London in 1940, Jeffrey Howard Archer was elected as the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Louth, a market town in central Lincolnshire, in 1969. He resigned five years later amid a financial scandal that left him almost bankrupt, but he was saved from financial ruin by the publication of his first novel, "Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less" (published in 1974 in the US and two years later in the UK). "Shall We Tell the President?" in 1977 was followed by the 1979 "Kane and Abel" (one of my all-time favourite novels), which topped the 'New York Times' bestseller list and was later made into a TV miniseries by CBS.

Archer never looked back as an author, and has continued to produce novels that sold in their millions ever since. His personal life has been less of an even road, with highs such as being awarded a Life Peerage as Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare in 1992, to lows of a three-year stint at Her Majesty's Pleasure, for perjury and perverting the course of justice, in 2001-03.