Favourites in Historical Time-Travel Literature Quiz

Answer: Ken Follet

This is true story of the rescue of Electronic Data Systems executives Paul Chiapparone and Bill Gaylord from prison in Tehran in the midst of the revolution in early 1979. When Ross Perot, company head, was informed that his staff had been arrested on false charges of corruption, he organised for a team led by retired Col. Arthur D. Simons to rescue them, regardless of the cost. Attempts to negotiate had failed, in-country EDS staff tried to assist, but it took Simons and Perot himself flying to Iran to accomplish the rescue. Follet was enlisted by Perot to write this captivating account of the events.

Answer: Umberto Eco

Set in 1327, a Franciscan friar (William of Baskerville) and his novice, Adso of Melk, arrive at an Italian monastery to attend a theological disputation that involves the Pope, Pope John XXII. However, they are soon involved in a murder mystery that threatens to disrupt proceedings.

This was Eco's debut novel, published in 1980, and it has brought high praise from critics across the globe for its intelligence, literary theory and biblical analysis. Selling in excess of fifty million copies, the novel has also earned Eco numerous awards, including the Strega Prize in 1981 and Prix Medicis Étranger in 1982.

Answer: Lindsey Davis

This is the first in the feted series of novels that feature Marcus Didius Falco, a Roman "informer" (detective) in the time Vespasian. In "The Silver Pigs", he becomes embroiled with a girl who is in possession of silver ingots that came from the silver mines of the Roman outpost in Britain.

This is also the novel where he meets his future wife, Helena Justina, a Senator's daughter. Lindsey Davis is an historical novelist from the United Kingdom, and she is a recipient of the Cartier Diamond Dagger award.

Answer: William Faulkner

Told in flashback, this story is set just before, during and after the American Civil War. The main focus of the novel is a young white man by the name of Thomas Supton. Supton, who was born into poverty, moves out to Mississippi where he acquires one hundred acres of land from a Native American tribe and sets out building a mighty fortune.

Regularly voted as one of the best novels written about the American South, the book was first published in 1936 and, along with "The Sound and the Fury" would have assisted Faulkner in eventually winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Answer: Janette Oke

Janette Oke is a Canadian author of Christian novels in historic settings, whose writing has earned her the Christy Award for excellence, and a number of Gold Medallion Awards. "Roses For Mama", a 1990 novel, is a story about a 17-year old girl who is compelled to care for her sibling when they are orphaned.

She is torn between looking after her family and seeing them grow and develop relationship, but is torn about how she should respond to those who are interested in a relationship with her.

Answer: Robert Graves

Robert Graves' clever weaving of fiction and fact, "I, Claudius", was first published in 1934. It reads as an almost autobiographical work of Claudius, who was Roman Emperor from AD41 to AD54. The story-line commences with the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44BC and follows events through to that of Caligula in 41 AD.

A sequel would be published in 1935 called "Claudius the God". The two books would be combined to form the basis of an award winning television series, bearing the original book's title, in 1976.

Answer: Anya Seton

This story of the long-time mistress and later wife of John of Gaunt tells of the life of Katherine Swynford and the Duke of Lancaster. The head of the Plantagenet line, John of Gaunt (Ghent) was the father of Henry IV, King of England and of several consorts of European monarchs. The story is compelling, and gives the background of the circumstances that led to the Tudor dynasty.

Answer: William Boyd

William Boyd's black comedy is set during World War I, primarily during a battle between British and German forces in the midst of the East African campaign. Prior to the war, Temple Smith, an American, maintains good relations with his German neighbour Erich von Bishop. When war breaks out Bishop burns down Smith's plantation, leaving the latter penniless. Despite being American, Smith joins the British war effort and spends the next four years seeking revenge on von Bishop.

Boyd's satire was published in 1982.

Answer: William Golding

Golding takes us back to pre-historic times as he focusses this story on Lok and Fa, adult members of a Neanderthal tribe. They observe the "new people" (Homo-sapiens) who have ventured into their territory. Some of the tribe members die and then the children are stolen. It is with slow realisation that Lok and Fa figure that the strange sticks these new people carry mean them harm.

William Golding, who is probably best known for his best selling book "The Lord of the Flies" (1954), published this, his second novel, a year later.

Answer: Padma Venkatraman

First published in 2008, the book is aimed at the young adult market. Set during World War II with India in the midst of its struggle for independence. Vidya, at fifteen years is starting to come of age when she sees her father bashed at an Independence rally. He suffers brain damage and it falls on Vidya's shoulders to relocate the family from Bombay to Madras.