Who Created Me? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh (1903 - 1966) is perhaps most famous for "Brideshead Revisited" (1945), but my personal favorite is the World War II trilogy, "Men at Arms" (1952), "Officers and Gentlemen"(1955), and "Unconditional Surrender" (1961). These books follow Guy Crouchback through the war, from "phony war", to the Commandos, the invasion of Crete, Yugoslavia, and back to England.

They are both enormously funny and very moving.

Answer: John Irving

John Irving's novels are something like a strip-tease, dancing 'round and 'round the central event, dropping a fact here, an insight there, until finally all is laid bare, and you finally find out what the book is actually about. This is compelling, to some readers; to others, merely irritating.

Answer: Jane Duncan

"Jane Duncan" is the pen-name of Elizabeth Jane Cameron (1910 - 1976). When the first novel in her "Friends" series, "My Friends the Miss Boyds", (1959), was accepted by her publisher, she revealed that she had six more finished novels waiting. The first three or four of these novels have such a fresh and engaging tone, that it's impossible not to like them. Further on, things get darker in the life of her heroine Janet Sandison, paralleling the events in Duncan's own life, but by that time, you have come to know and care so much about the characters that you must keep reading.

The last of the books "My Friends George and Tom", was published in 1976.

Answer: Jack London

Any reader of Jack London won't be surprised to learn that, as a boy, he had a great enthusiasm for dime novels, adventures, and romances of all kinds. He stated that Ouida's "Signa" "had done more to shape his career than any other single influence."

Answer: John Le Carre

The end of the Cold War put a bit of a crimp in John Le Carre's style, but he was able to find other subject matter, in such books as "The Little Drummer Girl" (1983), and "The Tailor of Panama"(1996).

Answer: Ann M. Martin

"The Babysitters Club" is a vastly popular series, with spin-offs, by the very prolific Ms. Martin. There are hundreds of books in the series, and, although understandably formulaic, they are not really all that bad. The comforting familiarity appeals to elementary-age kids, and anything that keeps kids reading is, in my mind, worth having around.

Answer: Jane Austen

Those of us who love Jane Austen, and there are many of us, have mostly been pleased in the last few years by the many fine film adaptations of her novels. Admit it though, didn't you think Emma Thompson was too old to play Elinor, opposite Hugh Grant in "Sense and Sensibility"?

Answer: Larry McMurtry

Even if you've never read a book by Larry McMurtry, you've probably seen a movie based on one of his books. "The Last Picture Show", "Hud", "Terms of Endearment", "Lonesome Dove" - McMurtry writes laugh-out-loud-funny books in which beloved characters die tragic and meaningless deaths. How can it miss?

Answer: P.G. Wodehouse

Some of us are familiar with Wodehouse's most famous creations, Jeeves and Wooster, from the Granada Television series, starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. Some of us have seen Arthur Treacher as Jeeves, and David Niven as Bertie, in the movies from the '30's.

Some of us (the happiest, I think) have read the books and stories, and experienced Wodehouse's indescribable literary style. And some lucky few of us have done all three.

Answer: Mordecai Richler

Mordecai Richler (1931 - 2001) was twice short-listed for the Booker Prize, in 1971 for "St. Urbain's Horseman", and in 1990 for "Solomon Gursky Was Here", which won the 1990 Commonwealth Writer's Prize. His novels are mostly set in Jewish Montreal.

Answer: Walter R. Brooks

Freddy the talking pig was a detective, poet, newspaperman, traveller, and, well, anything else he wanted to be. The animals at the Bean Farm lived a rollicking and adventurous life in this marvelous series by the creator of the TV show "Mr. Ed".

Answer: Sharyn McCrumb

Sharyn McCrumb is the author of two series, the "Ballad" novels, and the intelligent and witty Elizabeth MacPherson series. Although both would be classed as mysteries, they are most notable for their portrayal of the South, particularly Appalachia. There are no stock hillbillies here! McCrumb was honoured for Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature by the Appalachian Writers Association in 1997, among a long list of other awards.

Answer: Wilkie Collins

Wilkie Collins (1824 - 1889) is best remembered for two of his novels, "The Moonstone", and "The Woman in White". "The Moonstone" (1868) was described by T.S. Eliot as "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels". It is an excellent book; a well-plotted mystery, and a fine adventure. Gabriel Betteredge, the old servant with the firm belief that the answer to all of life's puzzles can be found in the pages of "Robinson Crusoe", is one of my favorite literary characters.

Answer: Ed McBain

Salvatore Lombino is both "Ed McBain" and "Evan Hunter". As Ed McBain he has written the famous and long-running (more than fifty books) "87th Precinct" police procedural series, and the "Matthew Hope" series. As Evan Hunter, he wrote "The Blackboard Jungle" (later made into a movie famous for having the first rock 'n' roll song on a soundtrack - "Rock around the Clock"), "Last Summer", and the screenplay for "The Birds". Prolific guy.

Answer: Robert Louis Stevenson

Not many people would guess, reading such swashbuckling adventures as "Treasure Island", or "The Black Arrow", that the author had been an invalid all his life. Stevenson didn't let his ill health (from tuberculosis) slow him down though, travelling extensively throughout his life, and finally dying in Samoa, a long way from his birthplace in Scotland.

Answer: Agatha Christie

You didn't expect me to give you "Hercule Poirot" and "Jane Marple", did you? Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976) wrote more than 66 mystery novels, plus short stories, plays, and a few romantic novels under the pen name of "Mary Westmacott". Her works have been translated into more than one hundred languages.

Answer: E.M. Forster

Forster left instructions that his homosexually themed 1914 novel "Maurice" not be published until after his death. It is dedicated to "a happier year". During Forster's lifetime homosexuality was illegal in England.

Answer: George MacDonald Fraser

G.M. Fraser's "Flashman" novels purport to be the uncensored diaries of Harry Flashman, the drunken bully from Thomas Hughes' "Tom Brown's Schooldays" (1857). "Flash Harry" cannons through the Victorian age, seducing every woman he comes across, and running away from every fight.

These books are not only incredibly funny, but also jam-packed with information about the nooks-and-crannies of the world, and the odd and eccentric characters that populated it throughout the last half of the nineteenth century.

The first novel "Flashman" was published in 1969.

Answer: Tony Hillerman

Together or apart, Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police star in a mystery series that started with "The Blessing Way" (1970). Tony Hillerman has been awarded the Navajo Tribes's "Special Friend Award", which states "an expression of appreciation and friendship for authentically portraying the strength and dignity of traditional Navajo culture."

Answer: Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood is probably the Canadian writer best-known abroad. She has been short-listed twice for the Orange Prize and four times for the Booker Prize, winning in 2000 for "The Blind Assassin". Her best known book is probably "A Handmaid's Tale" (1986), but my own personal favorite is "Cat's Eye" (1989).

This novel perfectly re-creates the special hell that pre-teen girls are so adept at making for each other.

Answer: Rex Stout

What all these names have in common is, of course, Nero Wolfe. Rex Stout's famous fat detective lived in a brownstone on West 35th street in New York, with Fritz, his chef; Theodore, his orchid man; and Archie, his assistant-about-town, and the narrator of all the Nero Wolfe books and stories. I like these books best of all the "Great Detective" genre, witty and well-plotted.

Answer: Stephen King

From the number of quizzes about his books here on Funtrivia, I don't think I have to (or could!) tell you anything about Stephen King. One of the best-selling authors of all time, King writes pretty good, and pretty scary, books, though some of them are a little long ("Insomnia" could have been a cure for same).

Answer: Mark Twain

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1884), was, on first publication, considered to be "rough, coarse, and inelegant", a lesser sequel to "Tom Sawyer". Now, most people would consider it the finest thing that Mark Twain ever wrote, and, maybe, one of the greatest American novels.

Answer: Margaret Laurence

Margaret Laurence is a major figure in Canadian literature. Her most important books are the five novels centered around the fictional town of Manawaka, Manitoba. Laurence's was one of the first powerful women's voices to come out of the Canadian West.

Answer: Dorothy L. Sayers

The first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery "Whose Body" was published in 1923. Dorothy Sayers went on to write thirteen more novels and short story collections about her aristocratic detective, most of them full of the railway timetables, country-house floor-plans, and puzzling ciphers so beloved by her fans.