Facts from Fiction Trivia Quiz

Answer: Seretse Khama

As Mma Ramotswe, Alexander McCall Smith's lady detective in "The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency" would tell you, Sir Seretse Khama was president of Botswana when it gained independence in 1966.

"The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency" is the first in a gentle series of stories about a detective agency in Botswana. The common sense approach of Mma Ramotswe to the varying troubles presented by her clients is refreshing and evokes a world I know I often like to retreat into.

Answer: Pakistan

This came from "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, the boys enjoyed Lollywood films in their youth. Lollywood is the film industry based in Lahore, Pakistan.
The best selling "Kite Runner" is a tale that brings life in pre Taliban Afghanistan to life.

Answer: Built up the streets to raise the level of the town

Just like Terry Pratchett's "Ankh-Morpork", Seattle built up. Of course, some buildings kept their doors at the old street level requiring pedestrians to use a ladder to cross the road!
The world created by Terry Pratchett in his "Discworld" novels is another welcome refuge from the lunacy of our round world, but his fantasy creation manages to reflect the essence of the round world all the same.

Answer: Oberammergau

An oath was sworn to perform a passion play in Oberammergau every 10 years to thank God for the village surviving the plague. The first performance was in 1634.
In Elinor M Brent-Dyer's "Chalet School" books, the students visit the passion play. It's nice to lose yourself in a good book and these school stories, set in a girls boarding school in the Austrian Tyrol, were an early form of escape for a much younger me.

Answer: Willow

According to Jean Auel in her "Cave Bear" series, Ayla her heroine, brewed willow bark tea in those Stone Age situations where we would reach for aspirin.
At least one of the other plants mentioned is highly poisonous and I wouldn't recommend experimentation with willow either.
The "Cave Bear" series creates a well developed Ice Age world in which the Cro-magnon inhabitants travel, interact and develop new ideas. Jean Auel's extensive research has led to the creation of a wholly believable view of how our ancestors lived in those far off days.

Answer: Women

The two 19th Century Chinese girls in "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See, were able to keep in touch with messages written in the secret women's language called Nu Shu.
When reading "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" I was introduced to a completely different way of life to that enjoyed by modern, Western women. Life in late 19th Century China as portrayed in this book was hard even for the privileged, but is narrated as a matter of fact normality. This was an extremely enjoyable book.

Answer: by coating the strings of their kites with ground glass

Amir and Ali in "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, made an excellent kite fighting team. At the end of the season, when they went back to school, boys would compare the scars on their hands caused by the glass coated strings.

In the Afghanistan of "The Kite Runner", kite fighting is shown as an important part of life, and one which the Taliban banned, along with other pleasures the characters enjoyed.

Answer: Mt. Etna

During a holiday in one of Angela Brazil's school stories, the chracters go on holiday to Sicily and get caught up in an eruption by Mount Etna - very exciting it was too.
Stromboli and Vesuvius are both in Italy, but Olympus Mons is on Mars.

Along with Elinor Brent-Dyer's "The Chalet School" stories, Angela Brazil's school stories were a major part of my childhood. Somehow a Scottish Primary didn't provide quite the excitement of the midnight feasts and jolly hockey sticks of these fictional boarding schools

Answer: Roll it gently between your fingers loosening from the middle out

"The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx has a knot or piece of mariners' wisdom at the start of every chapter. Untangling a "hairy devil" is one of those - loosen the snarl at the point the longest end leaves the knot, and roll gently to loosen - that's the process the knot used to form in the first place.

As well as the knots, "The Shipping News" contains a wonderfully drawn tale of life in an isolated Newfoundland fishing community.

Answer: Banks of raised benches at the side of a sports field

Well I'm not American!
I read about bleachers in a romantic novel - "Bright Hopes" by Pat Warren, one of the "Tyler" series. They are apparently ranks of benches sitting at the side of the sports field. The British would call them a stand, but I don't know of any school that has them. They frequently appear in films such as "Grease", and apparently the American usage of "under the bleachers" is equivalent to the British usage of the term "behind the bike sheds".

The "Tyler" series is a collection of romantic novels set in an American small town, with the twist that as well as various boy meets girl tales there is a murder mystery to be resolved over the series. I don't know who dunnit, I never read the last of them!