"C"haracter Creators Trivia Quiz

Answer: Michael Crichton

John Michael Crichton was born in Chicago in 1942. He originally went to Harvard to study literature, but switched his major to biological anthropology, in which he graduated 'summa cum laude' before going on to Harvard Medical School, although in the end he never obtained a medical license having already submitted to the writing bug.

The master of the techno-thriller novel, Crichton's works include "The Andromeda Strain", "Congo", "The Lost World" and "State of Fear". He adapted his own novel for the 1993 Stephen Spielberg blockbuster "Jurassic Park". That film, along with his novel "Disclosure" and, perhaps his greatest contribution, TV's classic series "ER", were the three works created by Crichton that simultaneously topped their respective ratings at the same time, a truly remarkable achievement.

Crichton died aged 66 in 2008

Answer: Raymond Chandler

Raymond Thornton Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888. He was educated in London at the famous Dulwich College, a public school whose alumni also include P.G. Wodehouse and C.S. Forester.

Chandler published his first short story in 1933 and six years later produced one of the great detective novels of the 20th century, "The Big Sleep", written in the first person from the point of view of the archetypical hard-boiled detective, Philip Marlowe. Humphrey Bogart played Marlowe in the 1946 film adaptation of the novel (which also starred Lauren Bacall). A second screen version, in 1978, with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe, featured an all-star cast including Joan Collins, Edward Fox, John Mills, James Stewart, Harry Andrews and Oliver Reed.

Other Chandler novels that also led to classic movies include "Farewell, My Lovely" and "The Long Goodbye" (for which he also earned the 1955 Edgar Award for Best Novel). Chandler was also a successful screenwriter, adapting Patricia Highsmith's novel for the Hitchcock classic "Strangers on a Train" and James M Cain's "Double Indemnity" for the 1944 Billy Wilder film.

Chandler died aged 70 in 1959.

Answer: 17th

Miguel de Cervantes Cortinas was born in 1547 in the historic city of Alcala de Henares in central Spain, just northeast of Madrid. He led an interesting life: a chamber assistant to a cardinal in Rome, a member of the Spanish Navy during which time he was captured by Barbary pirates, a purchasing agent for the Spanish Armada, a tax collector, and a convict.

Although usually now published as a single volume, Cervantes' epic comic novel was originally published in two parts, ten years apart. The novel's full title is 'El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha' ("The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha"). The first part was published in 1605 and the second in 1615. Between the two, Cervantes even had time to write a series of twelve short stories, published as "Novelas ejemplares" in 1613.

In the ensuing four centuries, "Don Quixote" has been adapted many times, including nine opera (the most famous by Mendelssohn), for five ballets, for orchestral works (including by Purcell and Richard Strauss), for a stage musical (in 1965 and called "Man of La Mancha") and a 1966 film adaptation of the musical.

So influential is the author that Spanish is often today referred to as "The Language of Cervantes". He died at the age of 68 just a year after the second volume of "Dox Quixote" was published.

Answer: Elias Canetti

Elias Canetti was born in 1905 in northern Bulgaria, in the city of Ruse on the south bank of the Danube opposite the Romanian city of Giurgiu. His ancestors were Sephardi Jews, and his family name came from the Spanish village of Cañete, whence they originated. He graduated from the University of Vienna with a degree in chemistry.

Canetti wrote his first novel, 'Komödie der Eitelkeit' ("The Comedy of Vanity") in 1934, but it was not until he had been settled in England for the best part of two decades that he really started producing regular material. His first play, 'Die Befristeten', ("Their Days are Numbered") premiered in Oxford in 1956.

In addition to his Nobel Prize, Canetti received numerous other honours from around Europe including the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art in 1972, the Gottfried-Keller-Preis (one of Switzerland's oldest literary awards) in 1977, and the Franz Kafka Prize (an international literary award) in 1981.

Canetti died at the age of 89 in 1994. Canetti Peak in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica was named after him.

Of the alternatives, three other Nobel Literature laureates, Giosue Carducci is an Italian poet who won in 1906, Camilo Jose Cela is a Spanish novelist and the 1989 winner, and J.M.G. Le Clezio is a French-Mauritian writer who won in 2008.

Answer: Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero was born in 106 B.C. in the commune of Arpinum, now the site of the town of Arpino some 60 miles southeast of Rome. Experts acknowledge him as the most important of all Latin writers, whose influence on the history of prose style has affected virtually every European language.

A leading Polish historian said of his work: "The Renaissance was above all things a revival of Cicero..." It was not until as late as the 18th century, and the Enlightenment, that his most important impact on modern writers was seen. Even today, his works still provide scholars with important insights into Roman history.

Branded an enemy of the state, Cicero was executed at the age of 63 in 43 B.C. and his severed hands and head displayed in the Roman Forum on the instruction of Mark Antony.

Answer: Lewis Carroll

Born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1832 in the village of Daresbury in northern Cheshire, Lewis Carroll was a logician, mathematician, photographer and writer. Today, he is best-known as the creator of the wonderful characters from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and its sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass". He also wrote a considerable amount of poetry including "Jabberwocky" and "The Hunting of the Snark" as well as some less well-known ones such as "Phantasmagoria" and "Facts".

Carroll died of pneumonia aged 65 in 1898.

Answer: Albert Camus

Albert Camus was born in 1913 in the small Mediterranean coastal town of Mondovi (now named Dréan) in northern Algeria. A serious soccer player, he played in goal for Racing Universitaire d'Alger in the late 1920s.

Camus wrote a half dozen plays and five novels (two of which were not published until after his death in 1960) as well as numerous essays and non-fiction works. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957.

Answer: Anton Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in 1869 in the port city of Taganrog, on the north shore of the Sea of Azov in southwestern Russia. His plays include "The Seagull", "Uncle Vanya", "Three Sisters" and, of course, written shortly before his death, "The Cherry Orchard".

Chekhov died of tuberculosis in Germany in 1904 whilst on a trip to the Black Forest. His body was taken home in a refrigerated railway car meant for oysters, and thousands lined the streets for his funeral procession in Moscow.

Answer: South Africa

John Maxwell Coetzee was born in 1940 in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2013, a South African newspaper described him as "the most celebrated and decorated living English-language author".

Coetzee won the Booker Prize in 1983 for "Life & Times of Michael K" and in 1999 for "Disgrace", thus becoming the first author to collect this prestigious award twice (an achievement that both Peter Carey and Hilary Mantel have since matched). In a writing career spanning more than forty years, Coetzee has won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Sunday Express Book of the Year award, The Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and the South African Central News Agency Literary Award three times.

Answer: Agatha Christie

She was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in 1890 in the seaside resort of Torquay in southwest England. The world of mystery literature knows her as Dame Agatha Christie DBE, although she also wrote romance novels under the name Mary Westmacott, and she later became Lady Mallowan (through her 45-year marriage to the archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan).

Of course, Christie's most memorable creations are the elderly spinster Miss Jane Marple and inimitable Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. She is the world's best-selling novelist of all time (according to 'The Guinness Book of Records'), with more than two billion copies of her books sold, and the most translated author (more than 100 languages). Her novels rank behind only the works of Shakespeare and "The Bible" as the world's most widely-published books.

A truly remarkable woman, Christie died at the age of 85 in 1976.