A quiz for Christmas

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER

By general demand this year's Christmas Quiz is considerably shorter and easier than last year's. There are 108 answers in all, of which any well-informed group of SPEC- TATOR readers should get at least ninety. Pass mark sixty-five.

1. Of the famous men who died in 1970, who

(a) met John Stuart Mill?

(b) left nearly a million pounds, mainly as a result of his association with a series of birds?

(c) was Prime Minister of Russia?

(d) was Prime Minister for thirty-six years?

(e) sat in the cabinet as leader of his party without being Prime Minister?

(f) was colonel, Prime Minister and Presi- dent in turn?

(g) wrote a book on tank warfare?

(h) was posthumous world champion?

(i) left a posthumous novel?

(j) was Hitler's bank manager? (Twelve answers in all.)

2. Who in the SPECTATOR in 1970 described

(a) one of his books as 'the best biography of Shakespeare ever written'?

(b) himself as 'a disinterested pleasure-loving lounger in middle life'?

(c) horses as 'foolish farting creatures, ad- mired mainly by fools'?

(d) the present editor as 'Lunchtime O'Gale'?

(e) Auberon Waugh as `a scurrile scribbler . . . very properly dismissed .. . for gross impertinency'?

3. Threes: (a) for what three things does an English audience or congregation customarily stand up?

(b) What had three pipes to do with red hair?

(c) what three Prime Ministers sat in both Lords and Commons while in office?

(d) what three English kings met fatal acci- dents while out riding?

(e) 'Three poets in three distant ages born, Greece. Italy, and England did adorn' wrote Dryden. Who were they?

4. Versatility:

(a) what trade unionist won the Nobel Prize for Literature, was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy and described Fascism as having 'rendered a service to the whole world'?

(b) what poet was simultaneously Lord President of the Council, Leader of the House of Lords, and Minister for Science, Sport and the North-East?

(c) what novelist composed an opera which was performed at the court of Louis xv, was a Roman Catholic convert, wrote a treatise on education, was described by Dr Johnson as 'a rascal who ought to be hunted out of society' and had supreme influence on the young Napoleon? (d) what Liberal candidate for Parliament played football for England, contributed Latin verses to the Times, held the world long jump record, turned down an invita- tion to become King of Albania, directed a performance of Parsifal and twice scored 3,000 runs in a season?

(e) what famous architect was described by John Evelyn as having given 'a Publique opera (for so they call those chews of that kind) wherein he painted the Sceanes, cut the statues, invented the Engines, com- posed the Musique, writ the comedy and built the Theater all himselfe'?

5. What was the nature of the disaster which killed

(a) forty-seven people near Beauvais in 1930?

(b) 60,000 people at Lisbon in 1755?

(c) eighty-eight people at Lewisham in 1957?

(d) 40,000 people at St. Pierre in 1902?

(e) 3,000 people in London in 1212?

6. Which is the odd man out?: (a) Emperor, Lark, Harp, Bird, Joke (b) Palmer, Talbot, Montrose, Boyd-Cante- nac, Aloxe-Corton (c) Large White, Small White, Marbled White, Wood White, Green-Veined White (d) Salisbury, Gloucester, Rochester, Char- tres, Cologne

(e) Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck, Lely, Kneller

7. With which county do you associate the following?

(a) Gussage St. Mary, Winterhorne Clen- ston, Alton Pancras, Stoke Wake, Milton Abbas (b) Milton Lilburne, Winterbourne Stoke, Alton Priors, Ashton Keynes, Donhead St. Mary (c) Shrewsbury, Alletson, Keeton, Hardstaff, Gunn (d) Stark, Ladbrooke, Cotman, Thirtle, Crome

(e) Lismore, Hardwicke, Bolton Abbey, Chatsworth, Eastbourne

(f) which is the easternmost county in Eng- land?

(g) walking round the mainland coast of Britain, which five counties would you touch twice?

(h) which nine counties touch Northampton- shire?

(i) which is the third largest English county?

(j) what four counties south of a line be- tween Gloucester and the Wash contain land over 1,000 feet?

8. Who are or were known as: (a) Boofy?

(b) Stuffy?

(c) Squiff?

(d) Hoylake troc?

(e) the Grocer?

9. What have the following in common?:

(a) Dump, hey, jig, pastoral, canaries (b) Lavandin, Larkspur, Parthia, Blenheim, Psidium (c) Warwick, Neil, Louis and Sir William (d) Dulciana, oboe, trumpet, ophicleide, bombardon (e) the Earl of Durham, Lord Beaverbrook, Lord Hailsham and Lord Fraser of Allan- der 10. Cooks. Which (a) was employed by Talleyrand?

(b) parodied the Prime Minister?

(c) has a restaurant in Islington?

(d) has a statue in the Mall?

(e) first ventured into the business which made his fortune by taking 600 tempe- rance enthusiasts from Leicester to Lough- borough at a shilling a head?

11. Which famous books open with the words: (a) must frankly own that, if I had known beforehand the labour which this book entailed, I should never have been coura- geous enough to commence it. What moved me, in the first instance, to attempt a work like this, was the discomfort and suffering which I had seen brought about by household mis-management'?

(b) `To write the life of him who excelled all mankind in writing the lives of others, and whom whether we consider his extra- ordinary endowments, or his various works, has been equalled by few in any age, is an arduous, and may be reckoned in me a presumptuous task'?

(c) 'Well Prince, so Genoa and Luccas are now just family estates of the Bonapartes'?

(d) 'The author of the following letters takes the liberty, with all proper deference, of laying before the public his idea of paro- chial history, which, he thinks, ought to consist of natural productions and occur- rences as well as antiquities'?

(e) 'While still a young man, John Courteney Boot had, as his publisher proclaimed, "achieved an assured and enviable position in contemporary letters" '?

12. In what opera does: (a) a statue come to dinner?

(b) the Rhine put a fire out?

(c) a man crawl around on the stage saying `Bow wow'?

(d) a fairy become an kip?

(e) the heroine lose her key, providing the hero with a chance to comment on the temperature of her extremities?

13. What famous painter: (a) wrote his own name in the middle of someone else's wedding picture?

(b) was nearly assassinated by a Women's Liberationist?

(c) designed the campanile of Florence cathedral?

(d) was the best friend of Emile Zola?

(e) was obsessed with the destruction of the world by water?

14. In what Shakespeare play do we find: (a) an English lesson?

(b) a bloody sergeant?

(c) a clock striking anachronistically?

(d) a bear?

(e) a snake?

(f) a bill?

(g) anthrophagy?

(h) Francisco, Cornelius, Voltimand and a priest? (Answers on page 854)