Ian McEwan's "Saturday" Trivia Quiz

Answer: A cargo plane with an engine on fire that safely lands

Saturday is the post-9/11 story of Henry Perowne, an ordinary man, and his thoughts one Saturday in the build up to the 2003 Iraq war.

The incident that Perowne witnesses is emblematic of the unease that sits over London at this time. The tension in the air over the forthcoming war and the fears of many Londoners about the inevitability of a terrorist attack on their city, makes understandable Perowne's initial belief that he is seeing a 9/11 style attack.

As the day unfurls, the television reports speculate in a similar fashion; ranging from alarm when reporting rumours that the pilots were Chechen separatists and that a copy of the Koran was found aboard the plane to palpable disappointment as the relatively mundane truth about the incident becomes apparent.

Answer: Neurosurgery

Perowne's work with damaged brains informs much of his view of life, making him acutely aware of the fragility of human life. The parallel is drawn between the destruction of a single life through disease or trauma, and the damage done with a single brief act of violence whether in war, through terrorism or on the streets.

Answer: The anti-Iraq war march for peace

The demonstration is the backdrop to the novel. Perowne's views on the march are expressed at several points throughout the narrative, most particularly when he acts as devil's advocate in an argument with Daisy after she has taken part in the march.

Henry is torn between the desire to see the violent regime of Saddam Hussein ended and his unease with the motives of the political leaders who seek to do just that.

Answer: All of these

The day is a mixture of delights and chores. The early delight is a game of squash against his consultant anaesthetist, Jay. Their weekly game is always taken very seriously as the players appreciate that the energies that they throw into these games are not going to be with them for much longer. The major chore of the day is visiting his mother in a nursing home, knowing full well that, due to her dementia, she will not be able to remember who he is.

Lastly, somewhere in between pleasure and chore, is going to his son's blues rehearsal. Perowne has only a rudimentary understanding of blues music and whilst he takes great pride in his son's abilities, the music generally fails to stir his passions. However, on this particular Saturday, the band have a new song to play for him and Henry is drawn in to its brilliance.

Answer: They have a minor car accident

Perowne had been waved through a police cordon so that he could get to the gym for his squash match. As he drives down the street Baxter, who Perowne had just seen leaving a lap-dancing club, pulls out from a side street and drives his car into the side of Perowne's Mercedes.

Answer: Huntington's disease

Perowne sees that Baxter's hand is trembling and that he can barely control his movements and instantly diagnoses that he is suffering from Huntington's Disease, a degenerative brain disorder that affects motor skills and behaviour and can make the sufferer unpredictable and aggressive. As he begins to explain the illness to Baxter, his companions are sent away so that the illness is kept secret from them.

Perowne is uneasy about his actions as he wonders whether he overstepped the mark and abused his position of authority, but given the nature of Baxter's condition, and the size of the bruise on his sternum from the one blow he does receive, his actions are excusable.

Answer: The opening of an art gallery

Henry and his wife Rosalind were at the opening of the Tate Modern gallery on London's Bankside when they were introduced to Mr Blair by the gallery's owner, who was a friend of Rosalind. Blair commends Henry on the excellent work he has been doing, before it becomes apparent that he has mistaken him for one of the artists displaying in the gallery.

Answer: Poet

The other reason for the family get-together is a celebration of the publication of Daisy Perowne's first anthology of poems, "My Saucy Bark", the title being taken from a line in William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 80", "My saucy bark inferior far to his", in which Shakespeare compares himself unfavourably to another, superior poet.

The title is a clear reference to the relationship between Daisy and her grandfather, John Grammaticus, a celebrated poet now dulled by alcohol dependency. The falling out between the pair had come after Daisy had been awarded the Newdigate prize for poetry for a work published as an undergraduate at Oxford, a prize also won by her grandfather some fifty years before. Jealous of her success and fueled by gin, Grammaticus berated the poem as derivative and ill-advised, and the pair had not spoken since, some three years on.

Answer: That she is pregnant

Baxter intention is to rape Daisy and so he demands that she undresses. When she complies with his wishes, Perowne sees in the flesh that the feeling he had had that there was something different about his daughter when she first arrived that evening, was indeed correct.

The telltale swelling of the bosom and the stomach tells the whole family, in the worst way possible, the news that delights them all.

Answer: "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold

Baxter, on discovering Daisy's book, asks her to read a poem from it. John Grammaticus, who by now is nursing a broken nose from Baxter's hand, suggests reading "one you used to say for me", meaning one of the poems he made Daisy learn by heart when she was a child.

Baxter is mesmerised by the poem and at its end repeats the question, "You wrote that?" over and over. His companion, disgusted by his weakness abandons the scene and Baxter is soon overpowered by Henry and Theo and the situation is over.

Like John Grammaticus and Daisy Perowne, Matthew Arnold was once a winner of the Newdigate Prize.