The Times Quiz Book: 4000 challenging general knowledge questions. Olav Bjortomt

some sort of problem with the quiz (thankfully, all I got was enthusiasm – I was later told that John had become addicted to the daily quiz during a cruise and so “could I do more questions?” “Err, okay”).

      Alas, once I could just do the five questions every morning for publication the very next day: whatever popped into my head, in fact. Ninety-five questions per week demands a far more efficient and wide-ranging operation. In fact, I’d estimate that the quiz takes me up 10-12 hours to compile: filing three quizzes on Friday and three more on Monday.

      While I could once rely on whatever novel I was reading, film I had just seen or album I was listening to, now I had to comb sources properly (though the mighty Wikipedia is always my first port of call); make sure I was covering all the quiz subjects (because when I don’t, I get letters asking “where is the science?”, “where is the classical music?”) and try to never, ever repeat a question (though I invariably do, every three months on average). Even if I may fail on occasion, the overall aim is to always be interesting.

      I keep two text files for maintenance, one headlined “times2quizzes (master)”, which contains every quiz I’ve ever done for The Times (with over 26,000 questions); the other: “times2 questions reserve”, which is a file containing containing 742 pages with an average of 20-25 questions per page. These are questions that might go into the quiz one day, if most of them weren’t too long or incredibly, unbelievable hard by far. Meanwhile new questions are written for this file every day.

      So when I compile the quizzes, I have good base of existing material to work from, though the urge is always to use new stuff or whatever morning inspirations I’ve had. The aim is to cover each core quiz subject: film, literature, history, current affairs, art, geography, politics, theatre, sport, with an unconscious emphasis on arts and books because that is what I truly love. Then, when the final 15/20 is done, the verification starts.

      Checking the questions can change the quiz irrevocably. Because verification is a serious business: it often takes longer to check the quiz than write it. Aside from vast chunks of wording being rewritten, what cannot be double or triple sourced must be excised.

      Therefore I always take these opportunities to insert a much easier question in place of what has been rejected (on average, this happens about three times per quiz). So the quiz I started with – believe it or not, people will gasp – was much harder than the one that ends up in the newspaper (of which about 75 per cent has survived). Then there are the queries about what I have written, in which vocabulary and phrasing are interrogated so thoroughly, it might bring out a burst of inane giggles just to read the emails exchanged between myself and the times2 puzzles desk.

      The process has no doubt helped me in my life as what has been termed a “professional” quizzer, however. Since the quiz went to 10 questions I have won two European individual titles and one World individual title in the big wide world of quizzing. Checking sources thoroughly, nay obsessively, has helped me become a champion quizzer, searing thousands of facts on my brain.

      And when an error slips through? There is hell to pay. I sometimes wish I had never been born, such is the probably deserved opprobrium I have been showered with by disgusted Times readers. But others are quick to shower the quiz with love when it stirs a half-forgotten memory of a place they had once lived or an obscure autoimmune disorder-type disease that needs as much public exposure as it can get. Even, if such knowledge has been turned into a mere quiz question.

      All of the questions you will find within these pages are, I hope, either challenging, interesting or enlightening. Some questions – if fortune has favoured my setting – might even satisfy all three requirements.

      So, please, enjoy…

       Olav Bjortomt

How to use this book

      This book can be used in two ways: Questions only or Questions and Answers. The Questions section has a hyperlink to the answers at the end of each quiz so you can test yourself. The Questions and Answers section has the questions with all of the answers to that quiz printed below so you can run a quiz. You choose how to play!

QUIZZES

QUIZ 1 – General Knowledge

      1 7X is the secret formula in which drink?

      2 Cleeve Cloud is the highest point of which English hills?

      3 Who succeeded George Washington as US President?

      4 Which British composer wrote Eight Songs for a Mad King (1968)?

      5 Who took the famous 1963 photograph of Christine Keeler sitting astride an Arne Jacobsen chair?

      6 Peter O’Toole played King Henry II in which two films?

      7 In a nursery rhyme, whose “wife could eat no lean”?

      8 Who founded the High Holborn toy shop Noah’s Ark in 1760?

      9 Roger Delgado first played which Doctor Who villain in 1971?

      10 William Huskisson MP died after being run over by which steam locomotive?

      11 Which “Fabergé of the Footwear” designed Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation shoes?

      12 Henry Laurens is the only American to have been imprisoned in which UNESCO World Heritage Site?

      13 The Egyptian goddess Heqet was depicted with the head of which amphibian?

      14 On which website is a person’s followers measured in Wheatons (500,000 = 1 Wheaton)?

      15 Which African nation is the Francophone country with the largest population?

      16 Which distinguishing features are absent in a person who has the disorder adermatoglyphia?

      17 Which Austrian-born philosopher reportedly once threatened Karl Popper with a red-hot poker?

      18 Which world light heavyweight boxing champion won TV’s Superstars in 1974?

      19 Which athlete broke Wyndham Halswelle’s 53-year-old Scottish 300 yards record in 1961?

      20 What is the pictured temple complex?

       Click here for Quiz 1 answers.

       Click here for the main index.

QUIZ 2 – General Knowledge

      1 Which female singer had a no. 4 hit in 1974 with Y Viva Espana?

      2 What is the British equivalent of the Swiss savoury spread Cenovis?

      3 Who proposed “the Easyway” of quitting smoking?

      4 Which musician found fame thanks to his Reggae Reggae sauce?

      5 HMV’s very first store was opened by