AGEING

• By law, how old must whisky be before it can be labelled “Scotch”?
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• Why according to George Gershwin and his librettist did Methuselah not in fact live for nine-hundred years, never mind what you’re liable to read in the Bible?
  2
• What English writer known widely by her pen-name published the first of a series of ironic and sophisticated novels for adult readers when she was seventy?
  3
• Which is the oldest newspaper in the world? It is distinguished also by having had the first female editor.
  a) The London Observer
  b) Le Figaro
  c) Berrow's Worcester Journal
  d) The New York Times
  4
• The world’s oldest creature was a vegetarian; he died almost three years ago at an estimated age of 250 years. Who or what was he?
  5
• Name the oft-married star of black-and-white films, her image recently featured on a new United States postage stamp, who is quoted as having said: “Old age is no place for sissies…”
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BIRDS

• What is the oldest known bird in the world?
  a) A tawny owl
  b) An ostrich
  c) An Egyptian vulture
  d) A Manx shearwater
  e) A little owl
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• Which group of birds are not found at all in the island of Ireland?
  a) eagles
  b) kites
  c) woodpeckers
  d) wagtails
  e) warblers
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• Which bird originating in Africa bred in Britain for the first time in 2008?
  a) blue-cheeked bee-eater
  b) cattle egret
  c) desert lark
  d) common waxbill
  e) trumpeter finch
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• Which once infrequently-seen species moved into the top ten of Britain’s commonest garden birds for the first time in 2008?
  a) crossbill
  b) siskin
  c) bullfinch
  d) goldfinch
  e) goldcrest
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• Why is the ortolan bunting the most prized (and illegal) gastronomic delicacy in France? Is it because it
  a) feeds on juniper berries
  b) feeds on lavender seeds
  c) is very inactive and so has tender flesh
  d) migrates to Africa
  e)has a peculiar characteristic of its body fat which makes it roast very crisply
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BOOKS AND AUTHORS RARELY READ

• Which French author's uncompleted projects included a study of tombstones and an essay about pederasty?
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• The earliest published version of which substantial work of poetry is dedicated to 'Mr W.H.?
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• Who, according to the Book of Genesis in the Bible, planted a vineyard, became drunk and 'was uncovered within his tent'?
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• What colour is the eponymous sperm whale in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick usually reckoned to be, despite actually being mottled?
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• The Broadway musical Man of La Mancha was inspired by which book?
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• In the film Se7en [sic], Detective Mills (played by Brad Pitt) finds himself struggling to learn about the Seven Deadly Sins from the works of Chaucer and which other medieval author?
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BRITAIN TODAY

• What is the average age of fathers in the UK?
  a) 37
  b) 32
  c) 28
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• Tesco's share of the UK high street is £1 of every how much spent?
  a) £30
  b) £14
  c) £7
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• In 1957, travel made up 8% of household spending. What percentage is it now?
  a) 10%
  b) 16%
  c) 25%
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• How many tablets of ecstasy will be consumed next week?
  a) Between 50,000 and 200,000
  b) Between 200,000 and 550,000
  c) Between 550,000 and 2m
  21
• What was the average UK house price in October 2008?
  a) £219,307
  b) £161,797
  c) £152,408
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• Are there more cats or dogs in the UK?
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ESPIONAGE

• Who was the ‘spymaster’ who uncovered the Babington and the Throckmorton plots; his network of informers may have included the playwright, Christopher Marlowe. Was it:
  a) Sir Francis Walsingham
  b) Sir Walter Raleigh
  c) C. Richard Burbage
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• Dutch courtesan and exotic dancer, Margaretha Zelle was accused of spying for the Germans in World War I and executed. What was her stage name?
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• Juan Pujol García, the celebrated WWII Allied Double agent, helped to convince the Germans that the D-Day landings in 1944 would be at the Pas de Calais and not in Normandy. What was his British code name?
  26
• It was created in 1943 as a Soviet counter intelligence department. James Bond’s adversaries in ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘From Russia with Love’ were its instruments. Was it:
  a) SMERSH
  b) SPECTRE
  c) KGB
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• He served in MI5 during the war and passed top secret Ultra intelligence to the Soviets. Later knighted, it was not until 1979 that he was publicly unmasked as a traitor. Who is he?
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• In 1978 Georgi Markov was shot in London with a poison pellet from a pen and later died. It was assumed at first that the assassin had used the tip of his umbrella. Which secret service was the assassin working for?
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ELIZABETHAN LONDON

• Queen Elizabeth I was born at Placentia in 1533 and it was generally regarded as her favourite home. By what name was this palace better known?
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• What was the name of London’s first purpose-built theatre, erected by James Burbage at Shoreditch in 1576?
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• Why were the whores of Southwark known as “Winchester geese”?
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• What grisly sight would greet you on approaching the gatehouse at the southern end of London Bridge?
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• What happened to the spire of the old St Paul’s Cathedral in 1561?
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• Where would you have found the public bull-beating and bear-baiting rings in Elizabethan times?
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• In his A Survey of London, written in 1598, John Stow mentions a “lazar house” in Kent Street. What was a lazar house?
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THE MILITARY

Name the authors of the following quotes:

• Which eye did Nelson wear a patch over?
  37
• Which of these wasn’t a real war?
  a) The Jelly War
  b) The War of the Crabs
  c) The Pastry War
  38
• What wasn’t given to British First World War pilots in case it ‘impaired the fighting spirit’?
  39
• What were ‘Waterloo teeth’?
  a) Dentures made from the teeth of soldiers killed at the battle of Waterloo.
  b) Sabres used by Prussian cavalry officers at the battle of Waterloo.
  c) A type of hydraulic railway buffer first installed at Waterloo station.
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• What did Lance Corporal William Harold Coltman, the most highly decorated NCO of World War One, never take into battle with him?
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• The very British ‘Sandhurst mutiny’ of 1902 involved the cadets...
  a) Taking the king hostage.
  b) Going to Camberley fête without permission.
  c) Burning down the military college.
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• What happened to Major General John Sedgwick moments after announcing “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance”?
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THE PRE-RAPHAELITES

• Which founder member of the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) went on holiday to Scotland with John Ruskin and fell in love with his wife Effie Ruskin, having shared 'confined' holiday accommodation with her?
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• On what basis was John and Effie Ruskin's marriage declared null and void?
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• What was the name of Pre Raphaelite model who was discovered in a hat shop, and went on to pose as Ophelia?
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• Which founder member of the PRB;s went on to marry the above hat shop girl?
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• What was the name of the manor house in which William Morris, his wife Jane Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti enjoyed an 'open' relationship?
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• The Awakening Conscience, for which his own prostitute lover posed appropriately enough as a prostitute, was painted by which PRB?
  49
• What was the full name of the child who John Ruskin taught, referred to as 'Irish Roses', fell in love with and eventually asked her to marry him on her 18th birthday?
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SERVANTS

• What was the name of the 18th century fictional footman who discovers that he was in fact the illegitimate son of his noble master?
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• What was the name of the runaway black servant who put himself under the protection of a Duchess of Montagu and corresponded with Laurence Sterne?
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• What was familiarly known in the 19th century as the “Pug's Parlour”?
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• Which famous character from a 19th-century novel is threatened with being posted as a governess to Ireland?
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• Which novel set in World War II, recounts the tensions of the largely English staff of a country house in the Republic of Ireland?
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• In which novel by P.G.Wodehouse does an English peer let his house to a rich big-game hunter, a Mrs Cork, but remain in residence disguised as the butler?
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• Which country house on the Welsh border has an endearing set of portraits of former servants allied to verses describing their roles?
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TRADITIONS OF LOVE

• Red roses mean ‘I love you’, but can you match up the meanings, according to traditional Victorian flower lore, of the following coloured roses?
  a) pink roses b) white roses c) yellow roses
  (i) you are divine (ii) please come back soon (iii) please believe me
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• Which flowering tree, commonly associated with love and marriage, was propagated widely from cuttings taken from Queen Victoria's wedding bouquet with the result that many mature trees in the south of England are of that provenance?
  59
• In the cult Bob Dylan song, who did the singer of the song marry on the fifth day of May?
  60
• In Pagan tradition, how long does a May Day wedding or “hand-fasting” last?
  61
• Which of the following foods is NOT traditionally regarded as an aphrodisiac?
  a) Basil
  b) Chillies
  c) Durian Fruit
  d) Ice Cubes
  e) Rare Steak
  f) Strawberries
  g) Honey
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• In which country was the groom's tie traditionally cut into pieces and sold to the guests at the reception to pay for the honeymoon?
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WHO SAID?

• ‘I used to be snow white, but I drifted’
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• (In response to Cherie Blair’s invitation to ‘Call me Cherie’) ‘I’d rather not, Mrs Blair.’
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• ‘Talk to a man about himself and he’ll listen for hours’
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• ‘Ah, yes, divorce. From the latin word meaning to rip out a man’s genitals through his wallet’
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• (On being told to go to bed):‘Little man, little man, the word ‘must’ is not to be used to princes.’
  68
• Which vintage Hollywood lothario swears by the following chat-up line: ‘When did you get pregnant?’
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• (in 2006): ‘Brown’s economic record is not all it’s cracked up to be’
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