There Was a Time Trivia Quiz

Answer: H. G. Wells

Herbert George ("H. G.") Wells first published 'The Time Machine' in 1895 and in the process coined a term that went on to become a staple plot device for future writers of science fiction. In this story, a scientist identified only as "The Time Traveller" uses his newly developed time machine to take a trip to the year 802,701 where he discovers that humans have apparently evolved into two separate races - the peaceful, but indolent Eloi and the violent Morlocks, whose primitive appearance belies the complex industry of their underground world.

'The Time Machine' is one of Wells' earliest published works and was closely followed by other famous titles, including 'The Island of Doctor Moreau' (1896), 'The Invisible Man' (1897) and 'The War of the Worlds' (1898). He was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction for over 50 years; the last book published in his lifetime was the 1945 non-fiction work 'Mind at the End of Its Tether'.

Answer: Stephen Hawking

'A Brief History of Time' is Professor Stephen Hawking's book about the physics behind the creation, expansion and existence of the universe. It may seem like an unlikely bestseller, but has sold millions of copies around the world since the first edition appeared in 1988. However, given that knowledge, it should be less surprising that it is written for non-scientists and provides (relatively) simple explanations of this complex subject area. The only equation people picking up this tome will need to read is Einstein's famous E=mc2.

Various editions of the book have been released, including a 2005 abridged version named 'A Briefer History of Time'. Hawking, who famously suffered from motor neurone disease and spoke with the help of a computerised voice, was the subject of the Academy Award-winning 2014 biopic film 'The Theory of Everything'. He died at the age of 76 in March 2018, 55 years after he had been given just two years to live.

Answer: Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan's 'The Child in Time' was first published in 1987 and tells the story of a children's author named Stephen Lewis, whose life falls apart after his three-year-old daughter Kate disappears without a trace during a shopping trip. After initially being actively involved in the hunt for her and whoever kidnapped her, Lewis gradually gives in to despair - neglecting his work and his heart-broken wife. He eventually begins to question what the future may hold when he has some strange experiences that appear to be from his own past.

'The Child in Time' won the Whitbread Book Award for best novel and was adapted into a television film starring Benedict Cumberbatch in 2017. Ian McEwan is probably best known as the author of 'Atonement' (2001), which was the basis of the 2007 Academy Award-winning film of the same name.

Answer: Audrey Niffenegger

'The Time Traveler's Wife' was Audrey Niffenegger's debut novel and first appeared on bookshelves in 2003. The titular time traveller, Henry DeTamble, is a librarian who has the ability to travel both backwards and forwards in time - the problem with this 'gift' however is that he has no control over when he travels and where he goes when he does. Sometimes he gets the chance to see his own past or that of his wife, Clare, but on other occasions he ends up in dangerous and potentially fatal situations. The fact that his clothes are unable to travel with him also leads to endless embarrassment!

The book was adapted for the big screen in 2009 with Eric Bana playing Henry and Rachel McAdams as Clare.

Answer: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

'Love in the Time of Cholera' was first published in Spanish in 1985 as 'El amor en los tiempos del cólera', but it became more widely known once it was translated into English three years later. It is by the noted Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez who had previously been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The main characters are Fermina Daza; her first love Florentino Arizo, who remains faithful to that love for the rest of his life; and Juvenal Urbino, a doctor with a desire to defeat cholera, who Fermina is persuaded to marry and spend the majority of her life with.

The novel is about the enduring power of love, even when it is tested by many decades of separation and the existence of other, equally meaningful, relationships.

Answer: Martin Amis

The full title of Martin Amis' 1991 novel is 'Time's Arrow: or The Nature of the Offence'. It begins with an apparently unremarkable retired doctor living in New York, but as the narrative continues - and time goes backwards - it becomes clear that the man, Odilo Unverdorben, had changed his name and escaped from Europe after spending the Second World War working at a Nazi concentration camp. In addition to time moving in the wrong direction, it includes reverse dialogue and other elements of life in the novel are also reversed - for example doctors causing injuries rather than healing them.

Amis (the son of fellow novelist Kingsley Amis) is also known for his "London Trilogy" of novels - 'Money', 'London Fields' and 'The Information'. However, 'Time's Arrow' was his first work to be short-listed for a Booker Prize.

Answer: John Grisham

John Grisham was a lawyer and politician before he found fame as a novelist and writer of legal thrillers. 'A Time to Kill' (1989) was his first published work and became a bestseller while Grisham was still a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives. The novel is set in Mississippi in the 1980s and is about a small town lawyer named Jake Brigance mounting a legal defence for Carl Lee Hailey - a man who had killed two white supremacists in revenge for their horrific attack on his ten-year-old daughter - and the violence he subsequently suffered at the hands of the dead men's supporters.

'A Time to Kill' was adapted into a 1996 film of the same name that starred Matthew McConaughey and Samuel L. Jackson as Jake and Carl.

Answer: Robert A. Heinlein

'Time Enough for Love' was first published in 1973 and nominated for several literary awards for science fiction works. The main character, named Lazarus Long, is a man who was born following a genetic experiment to increase human life span but has become bored with his existence after living for more than 2000 years. The novel is formed of five related shorter novellas, each of which tells a story about some aspect or event in Lazarus's life. They include 'The Tale of the Twins Who Weren't' about two possible descendants of Lazarus; 'The Adopted Daughter' about a young girl who Lazarus raises and then later marries; and 'Da Capo' about Lazarus travelling through time and falling in love with his own mother.

Robert A. Heinlein is one of the best-known writers of science fiction and completed over 30 novels and nearly 60 short stories in his 50-year writing career. His most famous works are probably 1959's 'Starship Troopers' and 1961's 'Stranger in a Strange Land'.

Answer: Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger was a 20th century German philosopher. 'Being and Time' (1927) was his first academic publication and best-known work. It falls under the broad concept of ontology - the philosophical study of being - and its contents formed an important part of the basis of existentialism.

It was originally intended by Heidegger to be the first of a two-part study on the subject, but the second part was never completed so the work remains based around two "divisions" - 'Preparatory Fundamental Analysis of Dasein' and 'Dasein and Temporality'. "Dasein" of course being Heidegger's term for a being that represents being.

Answer: Edgar Rice Burroughs

'The Land That Time Forgot' is by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan. It was first published in book form in 1924 but originally appeared as a three-part serial in the 'Blue Book Magazine' in 1918. The story starts out as war time adventure when the narrator, an American man named Bowen J. Tyler, is rescued by the crew of a British tugboat who subsequently manage to commandeer control of the German U-Boat that sank both their vessels. However, it turns into a fantasy adventure when, unable to convince the British authorities that they are not the enemy, the group end up sailing the U-Boat to the South Pacific. There they locate a long lost island known as Caprona and discover a world where the process of evolution is progressing at differing rates.

A film adaptation starring Doug McClure as Bowen Tyler was released in 1975 and a remake of the film - set in the Bermuda Triangle rather than the South Pacific - appeared in 2009.