Books from my Bookshelf Trivia Quiz

Answer: Martin Bell

You could argue that to study the life of Martin Bell is to study the history of the world for the last forty years. For over thirty years he was a foreign and domestic correspondent for the BBC. He earned a reputation as one of the most distinguished foreign affairs reporters of his generation. Outraged by the decline in standards in public life, especially among Conservative MPs he decided to stand for parliament against one of the more infamous sitting MPs at the 1997 and against the odds he was successful.

Answer: What Katy Did

The real name of the author of this book, Susan Coolidge, was Sarah Chauncey Woolsey. This novel was published in 1872 and hoped to pick up on the earlier success of 'Little Women' by Alcott. Coolidge followed it with two sequels; 'What Katy Did At School' and 'What Katy Did Next'.

Answer: The Pequod

Herman Melville (1819 - 1891) was a largely unsuccessful novelist in his own lifetime. Curiously 'Moby-Dick' was not well regarded by the critics or public. However, all that changed during the next century after his death when his works were taken up by the literary world and general public.

Answer: Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Solzhenitsyn was born in 1918 and is a leading Russian academic, novelist and writer. He has the much deserved credit for alerting the world at large to the hell that was life in the gulags (Soviet labour camp system) where activists against the soviet regime were imprisoned. For writing this and other works he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 and exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974.

Answer: The Pickwick Papers

The account of a village cricket match took place in Chapter Seven of Charles Dickens's comic novel 'The Pickwick Papers' (1836). Now I know you either love cricket or hate it but this account is at once charming and humorous and interesting from an historical point of view as it is one of the earliest accounts of the game which comments on fielding positions, strategies and the etiquette of the game.

Answer: Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson (1951) was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He made a low budget trip to Britain in 1973, met his wife and settled here for the next couple of decades. He earned his living as a journalist and occasional broadcaster. He wrote for 'The Times' and 'The Independent' as well as penning many books.

His books are too many to list here but he is a consistent leader in the best seller categories.

Answer: C S Forester

By the end of the series of novels penned about the life of Horatio Hornblower by C S Forester, Hornblower had risen to be Admiral of the Fleet, Viscount Hornblower of Smallbridge, and in a comfortable retirement. By this time he had had a courageous and exciting career charted by these novels. Forester based his accounts on his studies of the actual careers of Royal Navy seamen such as Sir George Cockburn, Lord Cochrane, Sir James Gordon, Sir William Hoste and many, many others.

Answer: Steppenwolf

My fellow Joliettes might be surprised as my lack of musical nous is well known to them.

The group Steppenwolf had some success in the early 1960s but soon gained world-wide fame when their third single, "Born to Be Wild", and their cover of Hoyt Axton's "The Pusher", were featured in the 1969 cult film 'Easy Rider'.

Answer: Colin Forbes

Colin Forbes (real name Raymond Harold Sawkins) was a British novelist who wrote over 40 books, mostly but not exclusively as Colin Forbes. Sawkins was born in 1923 and died in 2006. One of his most enduring characters was Tweed the Deputy Director of the British Secret Intelligence Service.

Answer: Bob Hope

Bob Hope one of the best known entertainers of the twentieth century was the son a of an English father, William Henry Hope and a Welsh mother Avis Townes Hope. His father was a stonemason and his mother a hopeful concert singer. Bob Hope (real name Leslie Townes Hope) was born in Eltham, England on May 29, 1903.