BBC Radio 4 Brain of Britain Ultimate Quiz Book. Russell Davies
writer’s first published novel The Grass Is Singing dates from 1950?
36. Two Italian composers wrote operas called La Bohème, both based on episodes from an 1851 book by Henri Murger. Puccini’s is the better known; who wrote the other?
37. In which decade of the twentieth century were the following phrases first recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary: nouvelle cuisine, paternity leave, no-go area, and passive smoking?
38. Living in Manchester, the Irish sisters Mary and Lizzie Burns became successively the mistresses of which philosopher who married the latter on her deathbed in 1878?
39. Which artist was commissioned by The Strand Magazine to illustrate the first series of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
40. Which British pop group had eight Top Ten hits in a row in the early 1970s, all of whose titles were deliberately misspelled?
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1. The films Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr Ripley are based on stories by which American writer?
2. The boxer James J. Corbett, who won the World Heavyweight title in 1892 from John L. Sullivan, was known by what nickname?
3. Another famous person often known by the same nickname, the singer Jim Reeves, was killed in a plane crash near Nashville in the summer of 1964 – and two years later an unreleased ‘demo’ recording he had made was dusted off, with a new instrumental backing, to give him a posthumous no.1 hit. What was the song’s title?
4. What’s the name of the plumed serpent god of the Aztec and Toltec civilisations, associated with the morning and evening star?
5. What term is applied to the average period of the revolution of the Earth with respect to fixed stars, a unit of time longer than a conventional year by twenty minutes and twenty three seconds?
6. A Love Supreme, Crescent and Giant Steps are among the albums of which jazz saxophonist, who died in 1967?
7. Rising to just over 1,700 feet, the hill known as Dunkery Beacon is part of which English National Park?
8. The French film director Claude Berri won many awards for his two-part interpretation of the novels of Marcel Pagnol in the 1980s, both films noted for their beautiful cinematography and generous budgets. The first part was entitled Jean de Florette; what was the title of the second?
9. Trouble at Willow Gables is the title of a pastiche novel set in a girls’ school, written, but never published during his lifetime, by which respected poet and novelist?
10. In the electromagnetic spectrum, what is found between X-rays and visible light?
11. Assault On A Queen was a 1966 adventure film starring Frank Sinatra, that was a critical and box-office flop. Who, or what, was the Queen mentioned in the title?
12. Mary Queen of Scots’ motto, En ma fin git ma commencement, which she embroidered on her cloth of estate, is echoed by the final line in a poem of 1940 – by which writer?
13. Lipase, an enzyme which catalyses the breakdown of fats into fatty acids and glycerol in the small intestine, is secreted by which organ of the body?
14. What was the name of the London thoroughfare, renamed Milton Street in 1830, which Dr Johnson described as having been home to ‘writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems’?
15. In which European city did the architect Walter Gropius found the Bauhaus school of design in 1919?
16. In medicine, what is measured by a spirometer?
17. In Iraq, the rivers Tigris and Euphrates unite before they flow into the The Gulf. What is the name of the waterway formed by their union?
18. ‘How Tom Brangwen Married A Polish Lady’ is the title of the opening chapter of which 20th century English novel?
19. Which word, meaning a handsome and promiscuous man, was originally the name of a character in Nicholas Rowe’s play of 1703, The Fair Penitent?
20. In 2010 a man known as Comrade Duch became the first person ever to be convicted for the systematic and horrifying crimes against humanity committed in the 1970s, in which country?
21. What, specifically, is feared by those who have the condition acrophobia?
22. To which writer is the quotation attributed: ‘An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have – the older she gets, the more interested he is in her’?
23. In fish, the lateral line system is a sensory organ used by the fish for what purpose?
24. Rising to 14 and a half thousand feet, in the Sierra Nevada of California, which is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States – in other words, outside Alaska?
25. Which name comes next in the following sequence: Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen, Kurt von Schleicher – ?
26. Which resonant acronym was widely used for the committee set up by the Republican Party in the early 1970s, to re-elect Richard Nixon as President of the United States?
27. Which sparsely-populated island, roughly midway between the Orkneys and mainland Shetland, lends its name to the shipping forecast sea area in whose waters it lies?
28. The adjective ‘diphyodont’ refers to which characteristic of mammals?
29. Which British Prime Minister was the last to have been born in the 19th century?
30. What mishap befell the canvas entitled Le Bateau, by Henri Matisse, when it was initially displayed at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1961?
31. Which fruit derives its name from an old Aztec word for a testicle?
32. ‘Sparrow’ is the literal meaning of the name of which Chinese game?
33. Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed both won acting Oscars, and Fred Zinnemann was named Best Director, for which 1953 adaptation of a novel by James Jones?
34. What was the name of the primeval supercontinent believed to have existed some 250 million years ago, and which split into the two land masses known as Gondwanaland and Laurasia?
35. Which country made Jonas Furrer its first President in 1848, and has changed its President on an annual basis ever since?
36. The title of a 1966 Jerry Herman Broadway musical, and that of a Jane Austen novel first published in 1815, are anagrams of one another. Can you name them both?
37. Who was the widow of the Roman tributary, King Prasutagus?
38. The Revolution and the New Power Generation were names given to backing bands of which musician