The King William’s College quiz 2021 – the answers

Hexagonal hunch? Gediminas Tower, part of the castle complex in Vilnius, Lithuania, see question 2.8. Photograph: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

Pupils at King William’s college on the Isle of Man have been tormented by its annual general knowledge quiz since 1905. Until 1999, the quiz was compulsory, but these days it is sent to pupils’ families to tackle over the holidays (and yes, you can Google). How did you do in the 2021 round? The questions are here if you want to look back …

1

1 Chanel No 5

2 Mothers’ Clinic for Constructive Birth Control (Marie Stopes)

3 Women in Love (DH Lawrence)

4 Anatole France’s (Nobel prize for literature)

5 Camille Saint-Saëns

6 Leipzig

7 Warwick Armstrong (fourth test, England v Australia)

8 Sergei Prokofiev (The Love for Three Oranges, Auditorium theatre, Chicago)

9 The Custom House, Dublin

10 Annual, Morocco (22 July)

2

1 Stint Lake/Ķīšezers (Latvia, Arthur Ransome, Racundra’s First Cruise)

2 Kaunas (Lithuania, 29 October 1941)

3 Narva (Estonia, Karl XII of Sweden and Peter the Great of Russia)

4 Riga (Latvia, CS Forester, The Commodore)

5 Tartu (Estonia, Treaty of Tartu, 2 February 1920)

6 Jelgava Place (Latvia)

7 Klaipèda/Memel (Lithuania, January 1923)

8 Vilnius (Lithuania, Gediminas Tower)

9 Saaremaa/Eysýsla/Oesel (Estonia, see Njáll’s Saga)

10 Ruhnu/Runö (Estonia, lighthouse)

‘Better a witty fool than a foolish wit’ … Antony Sher as Malvolio and Bruce Alexander as Feste in Twelfth Night. Photograph: Donald Cooper/Alamy

3

1 Jack Point (WS Gilbert, The Yeomen of the Guard)

2 Feste (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night)

3 Dicky Pearce’s (died 1728, inscription by Jonathan Swift)

4 Sir Dagonet (Tennyson, Idylls of the King)

5 Will Somers (portrait of Henry VIII and his family in Hampton Court Palace)

6 Archibald/Archie Armstrong

7 Rigoletto (Verdi)

8 Triboulet (Victor Hugo, Le Roi s’amuse)

9 Rahere (Rudyard Kipling, Rahere)

10 Le fou (the fool, the French bishop in chess)

Vector villain … tsetse fly. Photograph: Nigel Cattlin/Alamy

4

1 Sleeping sickness (tsetse fly, glossina species, is the vector for Trypanosoma brucei)

2 Sleepy London town (Rolling Stones song)

3 The Kraken (Tennyson, The Kraken)

4 Madeline (John Keats, The Eve of St Agnes, stanza 30)

5 Adolf Hitler (speech in Munich, 15 March 1936)

6 Prof Otto Silenus (Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall)

7 The Seven Sleepers (Christian victims of persecution by Emperor Decius, who fled from Ephesus in AD303)

8 Timmy Willie (Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse)

9 Amina (Bellini, La Sonnambula)

10 King Henry IV (Shakespeare, King Henry IV Part 2: act three, scene one)

Sign for Montpelier House, where Horatio Nelson, then captain of HMS Boreas, married Frances Herbert Nisbet on 11 March 1787. Photograph: Frances Howorth/Alamy

5

1 Nevis (Nelson and Fanny Nisbet)

2 Jamaica (Ian Fleming, Live and Let Die)

3 Bacaranao, Cuba (Ernest Hemingway, To Have and Have Not)

4 Port of Spain, Trinidad (VS Naipaul, The Mystic Masseur)

5 Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Graham Greene, The Comedians)

6 Saint Croix (HMS Scarborough v Capt Martel, 1716)

7 Bridgetown, Barbados (Patrick O’Brian, The Reverse of the Medal)

8 Dominica (mutiny of the Eighth West India Regiment, 1802)

9 Grenada (execution of Maurice Bishop, 1983)

10 San Juan, Puerto Rico (CS Forester, Hornblower in the West Indies)

6

1 Dick Francis (Sid Halley, his fictitious sleuth)

2 Willie Carson (A Question of Sport, 1982-1984)

3 Tommy Cullinan (on Billy Barton, Grand National 1928, only two finished)

4 Marcus Armytage (record time for Grand National on Mr Frisk, 1990, beating Red Rum’s 1973 record)

5 Frankie Dettori (last of all seven races won at Ascot on 28 September 1996 was on Fujiyama Crest)

6 Joe Mercer (Brigadier Gerard; incident in Conan Doyle’s stories)

7 Scobie Breasley (Epsom Derby win on Santa Claus, 3 June 1964)

8 Gordon Richards (champion jockey run of 22 interrupted by Harry Wragg in 1941)

9 AP McCoy (BBC Sports Personality of the Year)

10 Roger Poincelet (Psidium, 1961)

7

1 A Woman of No Importance – Oscar Wilde (Rachel Arbuthnot)

2 Lord Tony’s Wife – Baroness Orczy (Yvonne de Kernogan)

3 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins (Anne Catherick)

4 The Fair Maid of Perth – Sir Walter Scott (Catharine Glover)

5 The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy (Michael Henchard)

Meryl Streep as Sarah Woodruff in the 1981 film adaptation of The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Photograph: c Everett Collection/Rex

6 The French Lieutenant’s Woman – John Fowles (Sarah Woodruff)

7 Mr Standfast – John Buchan (Peter Pienaar)

8 The Clergyman’s Daughter – George Orwell (Dorothy Hare)

9 The Cabinet Minister – Arthur Wing Pinero (Sir Julian Twombley)

10 The American Senator – Anthony Trollope (Elias Gotobed)

8

1 Grape Nuts (slogan on many advertisements)

2 Almond (Numbers 17:8)

3 Pickled walnuts (Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers)

4 Palm nuts (palm-nut vulture)

5 The Nutmeg of Consolation (Patrick O’Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation)

6 Macadamia (named by Ferdinand von Mueller in honour of John Macadam)

7 The groundnut scheme (post second world war)

8 Pignuts (Caliban in Shakespeare, The Tempest act two, scene two)

9 Brazil Nut (selenium)

10 An empty hazelnut (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet act one, scene four)

9

1 Selkirk

2 St Mary’s Lake (William Wordsworth, Yarrow Unvisited)

3 Neidpath Tower (Sir Walter Scott, The Maid of Neidpath)

4 Melrose (Ned Haig suggested seven-a-side rugby in 1883)

5 Stobo Kirk

6 Jedburgh (to Hermitage, 1566)

7 Eildon Hills (Trimontium)

8 Hawick (Jimmie Guthrie – last of six wins 1937, Steve Hislop – first of 11 wins 1987)

9 Ashiesteel (Andrew Lang, Ballade of the Tweed)

10 Allanton (confluence of Blackadder and Whiteadder Waters)

10

1 Duke of Newcastle (followed Henry Pelham)

2 Andrew Bonar Law (Asquith’s observation)

3 Benjamin Disraeli (character in Falconet)

4 William Pitt the Younger (“one of Mrs Bellamy’s meat pies”)

5 David Lloyd George (Éamon de Valera)

6 Lord John Russell (5ft 4½in tall)

7 Sir Alec Douglas-Home (14th earl of Home)

8 Clement Attlee (personal rhyme)

9 Herbert Henry Asquith (to kiss hands with Edward VII at Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz)

10 Winston Churchill (Nobel prize in literature, 1953)

Masquerade … Leah Whitaker, Matthew Horne and Ellie Beaven in Charley’s Aunt by Brandon Thomas at Menier Chocolate Factory, London, in 2012. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

11

1 Charley’s Aunt (Brandon Thomas farce)

2 Aunt Jobiska (Edward Lear, The Pobble Who Has No Toes)

3 Aunt Patience (Daphne du Maurier, Jamaica Inn)

4 Aunt Augusta (Graham Greene, Travels With My Aunt)

5 Aunt Petronilla (Patrick O’Brian, The Commodore)

6 Great Aunt Maria Turner (Arthur Ransome, The Picts and the Martyrs)

7 Great Aunt Betsey Trotwood’s (Charles Dickens, David Copperfield)

8 Aunt Pettitoes (Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Pigling Bland)

9 Aunt Dahlia’s (Anatole at Brinkley Court, PG Wodehouse stories)

10 Aunt Ida Doom (Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm)

12

1 Weil (Adolf, leptospirosis – Weil’s disease)

2 Kinnier Wilson (Samuel, Wilson’s disease)

3 Sydenham (Thomas, Sydenham’s chorea)

4 Dupuytren (Baron Guillaume, Dupuytren’s contracture)

5 Crohn (Burrill Bernard)

6 Colles (Abraham, fracture of radius)

7 Bell (Sir Charles, Bell’s palsy)

8 Baron Munchausen

9 Hirschsprung (Harald)

10 Christmas (Stephen, Christmas disease, haemophilia B)

13

1 Duroc

2 Censier-Daubenton (Daubenton’s bat)

3 George V

4 Ségur (chateaux Calon Ségur and Phélan Ségur)

5 Botzaris (Markos Botsaris, died 1823)

6 Solférino (1859)

7 Jaurès (Jean Jaurès shot by Raoul Villain, July 1914)

8 Alesia (52BC)

9 Stalingrad (1942)

10 Poissonnière (cf Billingsgate)

14

1 Archie Andrews. (Peter Brough’s radio series Educating Archie)

2 Archibald Grosvenor (WS Gilbert, Patience)

3 Archie Roylance (John Buchan, John Macnab)

Timothy Dalton and Vanessa Redgrave as Archibald and Agatha Christie in the 1979 film Agatha. Photograph: AA Film Archive/Alamy

4 Archibald Christie (married Agatha)

5 Archie Weir (RL Stevenson, Weir of Hermiston)

6 Archibald Craven (Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden)

7 Archibald Primrose, fifth earl of Rosebery (Winston Churchill quote)

8 Archibald Wavell

9 Sir Archibald Douglas (Halidon Hill, 1333)

10 Archie Goodwin (narrator in Rex Stout’s novels)

15

1 Ribblehead Viaduct (TV drama series Jericho)

2 Ouse Valley (Sussex)

3 Thornton Viaduct (Bradford. Last of the Summer Wine, Three Men and a Mangle)

4 Larpool, AKA Esk Valley (Whitby. Bram Stoker, Dracula)

5 Medway (Kent)

6 Royal Border Bridge (Terence Cuneo poster)

7 Welwyn, AKA Digswell Viaduct (Hertfordshire. Queen Victoria, August 1850)

8 Victoria Viaduct (Washington, Co Durham)

9 Welland Valley, AKA Harringworth or Seaton Viaduct (Northamptonshire and Rutland)

10 Stockport Viaduct

16

1 St Mary Coslany

2 Samson and Hercules House, Tombland

3 Sir Thomas Browne

4 Carrow Road (drawn match with Bayern Munich gave Norwich 3-2 Uefa Cup victory on aggregate, 1993)

5 Defeat of Robert Kett’s rebels (August 1549)

6 Canaries (Protestant “Strangers” from the Low Countries)

7 The Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Norwich (Edith Cavell, 14 paintings by Brian Whelan)

8 Maids Head Hotel (LP Hartley, The Go-Between)

9 Thorpe Station (Arthur Ransome, Coot Club)

10 Octagon Chapel, Norwich

17

1 Joseph Heller, Catch-22

2 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

3 F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Eileen Atkins as Virginia Woolf in A Room of One’s Own at the Hampstead theatre, London, in 1989. Photograph: Donald Cooper/Alamy

4 Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

5 Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

6 William Golding, Lord of the Flies

7 Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence

8 Daphne du Maurier, My Cousin Rachel

9 Jerome K Jerome, Three Men on the Bummel

10 Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson

18

1 Mars (helicopter flights)

2 Gower lamb

3 Winchcombe (meteorite)

4 Delivery of nonuplets for Halima Cissé

5 Kuala Lumpur (Kelana Jaya LRT)

6 Murray Walker’s

7 Hideki Matsuyama (US Masters tournament, Augusta)

8 Ian St John’s (won FA Cup for Liverpool with extra-time goal)

9 The Beano (Freddy substituted for Fatty)

10 Ed Balls (Appetite, autobiography)