The Hanging Tree Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tyburn

It is Lady Tyburn, goddess of the River Tyburn, who in "Whispers Under Ground" rescued Peter from entombment in the platform of Oxford Circus. This was in return for a favour to be called in at a later date. That time has now come to pass. Her mortal daughter, Olivia, has been identified at the scene of a drug related death in a private flat. So private that the entire block of flats has the police Diplomatic Protection Squad stationed outside on a permanent basis.

Answer: Jonathon Wild's final ledger

Jonathon Wild is a notorious character in London's history. Before any organised police existed, he operated as both the law and a law breaker. He ran a gang of thieves in the style of Ankh Morpork from Terry Pratchett's Discworld. If a gang member or associate upset him he betrayed them to the authorities. He'd rob the rich of their valuables and then for a fee recover them.

The importance of the Final Ledger to this story, is that it is hoped to reveal the location of some more of Isaac Newton's papers on magic. Not everything he wrote made it into the archives of The Folly.

These papers might include a Third Principia by Newton. The first and second principia being "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" and "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Artes Magicis". The former can be found with ease in most mundane libraries, the latter only in specialist collections such as those of The Folly.

It is possible that Sir Isaac's explorations of alchemy, including the ability to transmute lead into gold, may have borne fruit. Thomas Nightingale wants the information for The Folly to prevent others learning it. Others want it for the alchemy itself.

Answer: Montreux Jazz Café in Harrods

All of these places exist in London, but presumably Reynard has decided on the location with the most entrances to make surveillance difficult.

Despite the plans for a peaceful negotiation, and to arrest Mr Fossman for possible involvement with the deceased drug user, it all goes pear shaped.
Three additional people get involved. Former PC Lesley May, an armed American and a previously unknown practitioner of magic, Lady Caroline, all stick their oars in and a ruckus ensues. The electronics section at Harrods suffers a lot of collateral damage as magic drains most modern electronics.

In some parts of the story the new practitioner is formally referred to as Lady Caroline, but in others as the Right Honourable Caroline. Her mother, though, is accorded the title Lady Helena under all circumstances.

Answer: Very nice. Mine's a Jaffa Cake.

For some reason I find this line hilarious, but that might say something about me better left hidden. The response makes more sense if you are aware that there exists a "Viscount biscuit". There also existed an aeroplane, the Vickers Viscount.

Lady Caroline started casting spells in the fiasco that followed Peter's meeting with Reynard. Her relationship with her mother reveals a hitherto unknown female tradition of spell casting in the UK. Unknown by The Folly, that is.

In the Harrods café, Lady Caroline created coils of smoke that looped themselves around various combatants. In the commotion she was the only one arrested, as the other parties of interest managed to escape.

Answer: Lady Helena

Lady Helena has used her magic, as did her mother before her, to heal and aid those who needed it. Brought up in Africa, she ended up in the slums of Goa, a magic-using Mother Theresa figure. Albert Woodville-Gentle was her charity fund raiser back in England. In 1979 she found out how he had been perverting her magical techniques. She flew back to England and they had a falling out, resulting in a collapsing hotel, with Albert at the bottom of it.

Magical fighting in this series seems to cause buildings to collapse frequently, as well as those deliberately demolished for other reasons. Harold Postmartin is the archivist for The Folly, ensconced in Oxford University.

Answer: The Intrepid Fox

Reynard is also known as Richard Fossman. In European mythology we find Reynard the fox, the trickster. In addition, Fossman is German for fox man (according to this novel). What could be more appropriate than The Intrepid Fox? The Horse and Hounds might be suitable for those looking for him.

The Chestnut Tree is a pub for the demi-monde, the magical world, situated near Marble Arch. Not entirely coincidentally, it is close to the site of the Tyburn gallows. This in turn took its name from the Tyburn Brook, not the River Tyburn, which is further over. But I doubt if a little thing like that would stop the Lady Ty from claiming eminent domain.

Answer: Tyburn

For reasons which become apparent in the story, the Faceless Man (the second, the first one was found dead at the end of "Whispers Under Ground") wishes to get to Lady Ty's daughter, Olivia. However dangerous the Faceless Man might be, he is not powerful enough to go up against the goddess of the River Tyburn in her own house, bordering her own river. To counteract this, he employs a sniper to kill her first, or at least provide a distraction.

The sniper got one shot off before being killed by a sword. Peter suspects that the sniper was killed by the ghost of the previous genius loci of the River Tyburn, Sir William Tyburn, son of Old Father Thames. Sir Tyburn is believed to have died from the pollution of his river in the nineteenth century.

The second faceless man used the shot as a cue to enter Lady Ty's house, where he was hit by a wall of water a few seconds later, courtesy of Lady Cecilia Tyburn-Thames.

Answer: Virginia Gentleman's Company

Thomas Nightingale remembers the appearance of the Virginia Gentleman's Company in World War Two. They kept to themselves; the Printer's Men, who had arrived earlier in the conflict, had been much more comfortable working with The Folly.

Despite being described as practitioners the current incarnation don't appear to use magic at any point, drilling out locks and being armed with anonymous weapons with no serial numbers. They seem to be aware of what magic can do and take non-magical precautions, such as watches without microchips and heavy-duty guns.

Answer: Razor strop

The term signare refers to something akin to a magical signature. It is a sensation that is left behind after a spell has been cast. But this only appears to be true of human spell casters; the various Genius Loci do not leave such tell-tale evidence.

In "Broken Homes", Peter Grant detects the Faceless Man's on a door lock that has been magically forced. In this story he detects it on the door of a pub storage room. "Just at the cusp of sensation, a wisp of gunmetal and the strop strop strop of the straight razor against smooth leather. It was a signum I had come to recognise as belonging to the Faceless Man."

Since everywhere else in the books uses the term signare, I am forced to conclude that these are related words. Indeed, a quick search of the web informs me that signare means to mark something and signum is the mark itself.

Signare is also related to vestigial and vestigium, terms for the traces that magic leaves on surrounding surfaces. The best interpretation I can come up with is that signare is a particular type of vestigium. These traces are associated with various creatures of magic.

A mixture of candlewax and hyacinth is the signare of Ladies Caroline and Helena. Old rope is one of the components of Lady Tybalt's vestigium, the others being cigar smoke and cooked fish. The rope is presumably a reference to the gallows that used to stand at Tyburn.

Answer: Varvara Sidorovna

The Virginia Gentleman's Company, Lady Helena and the Faceless Man are all looking for Jonathon Wild's Final Ledger, which Richard Fossman (also known as Reynard), is trying to sell. They are aware of this because, to his horror, Reynard's partner in crime advertised it on eBay. The Faceless Man is upset as the book has been stolen from his private storeroom.

This sets the scene for the final battle, centred on the car park of the very upmarket One Hyde Park. This is a real property, part of the Harrods Estates. A quick look online in May 2021 shows a 1-bedroom flat costing in excess of five million pounds.

Richard Fossman is aware that the Faceless Man wants him dead. Logically he decides to get his retaliation in first by driving a car at him. Lady Tyburn wants revenge on the Faceless Man for the earlier assassination attempt, but ends up having to deal with the Americans. She overcomes them relatively easily, which adds to the evidence that the Virginia Gentleman's Company is not capable of performing magic, just of trying to prevent others doing so.

On top of all these we have the police, including Thomas Nightingale and Peter Grant, and various supporting organisations. The result is naturally chaotic. The Russian nightwitch, Varvara Sidorovna, although mentioned does not play an active role in this story.