Perfect Places Trivia Quiz

Answer: C S Lewis

C S Lewis wrote the seven books which constitute 'The Chronicles of Narnia' between 1950 and 1956. The best known is likely to be 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe', the first to be published, in which the four Pevensie children discover the land of Narnia and Aslan, the lion who is the ruler of the land. Aslan is seen as a Christ like figure and a benevolent leader, with the Pevensie children helping him to overthrow the White Witch who has kept the land in a permanent winter.

Answer: Ursula K Le Guin

Consisting of six books, 'The Earthsea Cycle' series was written between 1968 and 2001. The setting is an island archipelago, although the area is not specified, with the people being knowledgeable but living in a world which has not undergone industrialisation. Magic plays a big role, with the inhabitants being born with magical ability, which can be further developed by training.

The themes include the understanding that the use of magic also involves the responsibility to use it wisely.

Answer: Samuel Butler

Published in 1872 with the sub title 'Or Over the Range', 'Erwehon' is interpreted as being the word 'Nowhere' in reverse. The book is a satire on Victorian values and hypocrisy, a theme which Butler continued in 'The Way of All Flesh', published in 1903 after the author's death the previous year. Aldous Huxley was influenced by 'Erewhon', acknowledged by him, in writing both 'Brave New World' (1932) and 'Island' (1962), his dystopian and utopian novels.

Answer: James Hilton

James Hilton published the novel 'Lost Horizon' in 1933. It centres on a monastery in Tibet, called Shangri-La, which was founded by a monk from Luxembourg. Everyone who lives there finds their ageing process dramatically slowed, with the original monk still alive despite being around 250 years of age. Leaving Shangri-La for the real world reverses the process with the person reverting to their actual bodily age - mostly, this means pretty much instant death.

The name of Shangri-La has passed into common usage as being a magical and sought after place.

Answer: H G Wells

This may not be as well known as the original 'Utopia', written by Thomas More in 1516, but Wells raises some interesting ideas with relevance to our modern era over 100 years later. Wells set his 1905 work on a planet further away than Sirius which is visited by two men from Victorian times.

They discover duplicates of themselves and find this new world to bear similarities to their own, although it is run by a world government. There are restrictions on what the inhabitants can do, but Wells does touch on subjects like female emancipation, race equality and the abandonment of eating meat.

Answer: J R R Tolkien

Rivendell is the home of the elves in Tolkien's Middle-earth, and appears in 'The Hobbit' (1937), 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy (1954/5) and 'The Silmarillion (1977). It is set in a valley and is a place of peace and tranquillity, unlike many other places in Middle-earth, which are beset by war. Rivendell was established by Elrond, who protects it using one of the three rings given to the elves.

In the story, it is Elrond's daughter, Arwen, who marries Aragorn, the king who takes his rightful place near the end of 'The Return of the King'.

Answer: James Gurney

As you can probably work out, the stories involve dinosaurs who cohabit peaceably with the humans who have been marooned on their island following a shipwreck. This is fantasy fiction, as the lifelines of dinosaurs and humans didn't overlap in reality.

The first book in what became a series was called 'Dinotopia: a Land Apart from Time' and was published in 1992 with several others following, as well as short stories based on the characters. A short television series was shown in the USA in 2002, adapted from the first two books.

Answer: Terry Pratchett

The wonderful Terry Pratchett, who left us at far too young an age, created Discworld, a land supported by four elephants who stand on the back of a giant sea turtle. The first book in the series, 'The Colour of Magic', was published in 1983. The series extended to 41 novels in all with the last, 'The Shepherd's Crown', being published after Terry's death in 2015.

Many of the stories parody other fantasy worlds, including those of Tolkien and Lovecraft, and other authors such as Dickens and Shakespeare.

Answer: Douglas Adams

Published in 1980 in the UK, 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe' followed 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', the first novel about Arthur Dent and his adventures. Adams originally wrote about his characters for a radio series, broadcast in the UK in 1978, before turning the story into a novel, with its sequels. Adams himself wrote five books, with Eoin Coffer creating a sixth novel, with the support of the original author's family. 'And Another Thing' was published in 2009 - Adams died in 2001 from a heart attack when aged only forty-nine.

Answer: J M Barrie

This might have been the most recognisable name in the quiz, as the name of Neverland has been used in so many areas - films, albums and songs have borrowed it, not to mention Michael Jackson's home. Neverland is the home of Peter Pan, created by J M Barrie in 1904 in 'Peter Pan or the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up'.

The characters have become engrained in popular culture, with pantomimes based on them appearing most years. Men who refuse to act responsibly are regularly described as 'Peter Pans', for their inability to grow up.