1. Who described being sick in the loo at a party hosted by Björk?

   1. Björk

   2. Amy Schumer

   3. Karl Ove Knausgaard

2. Who could be heard reciting an ode to a tampon one Sunday teatime on Radio 4?

   1. Sharon Olds

   2. Nicki Minaj

   3. Wendy Cope (in character as Jancis Strugnell)

3. Pro-Brexit bookworm Michael Gove said his pro-remain opponents’ depiction of life outside the EU had been scripted by ... ?

   1. Stephen King and George RR Martin

   2. Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker

   3. George Orwell and JG Ballard

4. There were significant anniversaries for all these authors in 2016, but only one of them had a novel adapted into a high-profile film or TV drama – which?

   1. Henry James

   2. Anthony Trollope

   3. Charlotte Brontë

5. Which of these did not happen in 2016?

   1. News that Gwyneth Paltrow is to direct a film of The Bell Jar

   2. An album of Shakespeare’s sonnets by a leading singer-songwriter

   3. A lavish ITV adaptation of Beowulf for Sunday evenings

6. And which of the following is untrue?

   1. The marijuana left behind by the late Hunter S Thompson is to be cloned and sold as Gonzo weed

   2. What was a DH Lawrence museum is set to become a tanning salon

   3. "LS Hilton", author of steamy art world bonkbuster Maestra, was unmasked as a leading gallery owner

7. Who was the bête noire attacked in Tom Wolfe’s book The Kingdom of Speech?

   1. TS Eliot

   2. Steven Pinker

   3. Noam Chomsky

8. All drew on the Bard in his quatercentenary year, but which was the odd one out?

   1. Javier Marias’s Thus Bad Begins

   2. Anne Tyler’s Vinegar Girl

   3. Jeanette Winterson’s The Gap of Time

9. Who was lined up to play a prominent role in Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary festivities but failed to do so?

   1. Benedict Cumberbatch

   2. Boris Johnson

   3. Russell T Davies

10. In terms of their titles, whose 2016 novel was the exception?

    1. Ian McEwan’s

    2. Margaret Atwood’s

    3. Don DeLillo’s

11. Who said: “I think the public has had enough of experts.”

    1. Stephen Hawking

    2. Michael Gove

    3. Donald Trump

12. Who said: "I do think it’s a different world today and I don’t think we should be nation-building any more. I think it’s proven not to work."

    1. Bernie Sanders

    2. Noam Chomsky

    3. Donald Trump

13. Who said: "If you think you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere."

    1. Theresa May

    2. Marine Le Pen

    3. Donald Trump

14. Who said: “Cyber physical systems and smart factories.”

    1. William Gibson

    2. Jeremy Corbyn

    3. Donald Trump

15. Who said: “When people feel they’ve been shafted and they don’t expect anything to happen anyway, they just want the maddest person in the room to represent them.”

    1. Bill Clinton

    2. Jon Stewart

    3. Donald Trump

16. Who said: “Boris and Nigel are definite tossers.”

    1. Cher

    2. Katy Perry

    3. Donald Trump

17. Who said: “I want my life back.”

    1. Nigel Farage

    2. Julian Assange

    3. Donald Trump

18. Who said: “If that motherfucker becomes president, I will move my black ass to South Africa.”

    1. Beyoncé

    2. Samuel L Jackson

    3. Donald Trump

19. Who said: "It’s hard to believe… amazing, incredible. Whoever dreams about something like that?"

    1. Bob Dylan

    2. Laura Trott

    3. Donald Trump

20. Who said: “A holistic education that includes literature and the arts is critical to creating good citizens.”

    1. Zadie Smith

    2. Hilary Mantel

    3. Donald Trump

Solutions

1:C - In Some Rain Must Fall, 2:A - On R4’s The Echo Chamber, 3:A, 4:B - Trollope's book Doctor Thorne, 5:A - Kirsten Dunst, not Paltrow, is directing The Bell Jar, 6:C - LS Hilton is the historian Lisa Hilton, 7:C, 8:A - Marias’s novel is not part of Hogarth’s Shakespeare Project , 9:B - Johnson’s book on the Bard, scheduled for the autumn, was shelved, 10:C - Only DeLillo’s Zero K has a title longer than a single word , 11:B, 12:C, 13:A, 14:B, 15:A, 16:A, 17:A, 18:B, 19:A, 20:C

Scores