Scrambled Eggheads' Childhood Favourites Quiz

Answer: Weenie

Between 1955 and 1959, four books were published: "Eloise", "Eloise in Paris", "Eloise at Christmastime" and "Eloise in Moscow". They were written by Kay Thompson, a well-known singer and actress. Some people might remember her as the fashion editor in the Audrey Hepburn/Fred Astaire movie "Funny Face" -- but few people know that she was vocal coach to celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland. She became a close friend of Garland, who selected her to be her daughter Liza Minnelli's godmother. Kay Thompson spent the last 10 years of her life living in Minnelli's Manhattan apartment.
Most famous are the illustrations by Hilary Knight, who so vividly created the impish, precocious Eloise character. He also illustrated the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, and created the posters for the Broadway musicals "Gypsy", "No No Nanette", and "Half a Sixpence", among others. He and Kay Thompson had a falling out after "Eloise in Moscow" was published and never spoke to one another again. In 2002, Mr. Knight published the fifth book in the Eloise series -- one that he and Ms. Thompson had been working on when they began their disagreement -- entitled "Eloise Takes a Bawth".

(Question and additional information supplied by VanCoerte.)

Answer: Anne

Initially, Enid Blyton intended to write only five or six books in the series, but owing to their extraordinary success, wrote a total of 21 novels between 1942 and 1963. The adventures usually take place during the school summer holidays, and involve such scenarios as criminal activities the five stumble upon, secret tunnels and lost treasure etc. Julian is the eldest of the group, and the brother of Dick and Anne, whilst Georgina their cousin is a tomboy who insists on being called George. Their dog Timmy is always with them during these escapades.
I would become totally immersed in these adventures, and once in possession of a new book, would go to bed early and read the book from beginning to end before going to sleep. On more than one occasion my mother would see my bedroom light on late into the evening and suggest it was time for me to bed down. I then remember using a torch beneath the bedclothes, until I'd reached the end of a book, which on occasions was well into the small hours.

(Question and additional information supplied by moonraker2.)

Answer: Anne Shirley

Anne was adopted from a Canadian orphanage by brother and sister, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, when she was eleven, but they had ordered a boy instead. The gentle old Matthew wants to keep her right from the start, but a firmer, stricter Marilla waits a few days until she decides. It's just as well Marilla is reasonably strict with the lively Anne as the years pass, because that imaginative, sweet-lipped, big-eyed minx has a habit of getting herself into some woeful scrapes. I love this book of innocence and laughter set on the beautiful Prince Edward Island, and still read it now and then today, just to catch a whiff of a gentler, softer time from long ago.

(Question and additional information supplied by Creedy.)

Answer: The Land of Counterpane

Written in the first person, the child in the poem tells how his toys kept him happy and amused. He played with his toy soldiers, boats, trees and houses on his bed using the counterpane as landscape. The poem reflects Stevenson's own childhood in which he was often sick and he dedicated "A Child's Garden of Verses" to his nurse (or nanny) Alison Cunningham.

"The Land of Counterpane

When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay,
To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane."

(Question and additional information supplied by Sally0malley.)

Answer: Queen Elizabeth the First

'Cue for Treason' was published in 1940 and its patriotic plot probably went down well in a country at war. Geoffrey Trease wrote over a hundred books for children and he was known for being very particular to get the historical background correct in his books, which gives them a very realistic atmosphere. His approach influenced other children's authors like Rosemary Sutcliff.

(Question and additional information supplied by fallingman.)

Answer: Asterix the Gaul

Written in the 1950s, the charming Petit Nicolas books were still very funny to the average badly-behaved 10 year-old (i.e. me) when stranded with equally badly-behaved aunties in the backwaters of rural Indre-et-Loire during the 1980s. But while they were translated into English, they never had anything like the same impact as Goscinny's long series of comic book stories about the formidable runner-of-rings-round-Romans 'Asterix le Gaulois' which began to be published a few years later, in the early 1960s. This is a pity, since the books deal appealingly with the (then) universal response of primary school children trying to come to terms with the world as they see it - moderate troublemaking and having a bit of a laugh.

(Question and additional information supplied by JacquiDawson.)

Answer: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy

Cyril (called Squirrel), Anthea (Panther), Robert (Bobs), Jane (Pussy) and Hilary (The Lamb) are the children who first appeared in "Five Children and It" (1902). "It" was a sand fairy known as "The Psammead" who granted the children's wishes, normally with unexpected and unfortunate consequences. They (and the Psammead) were also the stars of two further books, "The Phoenix and the Carpet" (1904) and "The Story of the Amulet" (1906).

Bobbie (Roberta), Peter and Phyllis were the children from what is possibly the best known of Edith's books, "The Railway Children" (1906). This is the story of a family who had to move from their comfortable home in London to Yorkshire after their father is wrongly imprisoned on suspicion of spying.

Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noel and H.O. (Horace Octavius) are the Bastable family. We first meet them in "The Story of the Treasure Seekers" (1899) where they are attempting to restore their family fortunes and help out their widowed father. Their story is continued in "The Wouldbegoods" (1901) and "The New Treasure Seekers" (1904).

Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were the Pevensie children who featured in several of C.S. Lewis's Narnia series.

(Question and additional information supplied by emiloony.)

Answer: At the Back of the North Wind

"At the Back of the North Wind" is a beautiful, emotional story with spiritual overtones, social commentary and Christian themes. Its author, George MacDonald, was Lewis Carroll's mentor, and C.S. Lewis credited him with being his inspiration.

"The Wind in the Willows", published in 1908, was written by another Scottish novelist, Kenneth Grahame and tells the story of four animal characters: Toad, Mole, Rat and Badger.

"King of the Wind" is the Newbery Medal winning story of Sham, an Arabian horse, written by Marguerite Henry and published in 1948.

"Old Mother West Wind" was written by Thornton Burgess in 1910 and includes some well known characters like Peter Rabbit.

(Question and additional information supplied by VanCoerte.)

Answer: River Heights

The author of the Nancy Drew books is credited as Carolyn Keene, but in fact there was never any such person, and the books have all been ghostwritten by a series of different authors. The first book,"The Secret of the Old Clock", was published in 1930 and as of 2019 "Carolyn Keene" is still writing about Nancy in the "Nancy Drew Diaries" - with new titles planned for 2020.

(Question and additional information supplied by emiloony.)

Answer: Moon

"Emily of New Moon" (1923) also tells the tale of an orphaned girl. Her mother died previously, having run away from her well-to-do family to marry a penniless writer. Sadly, he also dies (tuberculosis) when Emily is ten, and she is reluctantly taken by Elizabeth Murray to live on New Moon farm, where Emily's mother lived before eloping. With the delicate in health, Aunt Laura, the childlike cousin Jimmy who runs the farm, and the strict and unyielding Aunt Elizabeth, who is most definitely the boss, Emily's unfolding life from this point is one of laughter, scrapes, head on collisions with Aunt Elizabeth, and Emily's strange and eerie gift to draw back the veil of life now and then to see the world beyond. It is much richer and fuller in characterisation than "Anne of Green Gables" - but equally as entrancing.

Interestingly, some of the events taken from this work are real life occurrences of the author herself.

(Question and additional information by Creedy.)