Set by external setters.
1 |
Who was elected President of the USA in the same year the Great Depression started? |
|
Herbert Hoover (1929) |
2 |
Which yachtsman, born in Macclesfield in 1977, won Olympic gold medals in Sydney and Athens? |
|
Ben Ainslie |
3 |
Which of Dennis Potter's plays for BBC Television was about a group of seven–year–old children playing in the
woods, all of whom were played by adults? |
|
Blue Remembered Hills |
4 |
To which debonair actor did Mae West actually say the line "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" in the 1933
film She Done Him Wrong? |
|
Cary Grant |
5 |
Which African country was formerly known as French Sudan? |
|
Mali |
6 |
Which UK newspaper was launched in October 1986 by three former journalists from the
Daily Telegraph? |
|
The Independent |
7 |
What genus of tree has the Latin name Quercus, and includes species called Sessile, Turkey, English and Mirbeck's? |
|
Oak |
8 |
From 1750 to 1781, Shiraz served as the capital of which country? |
|
Persia (accept Iran) |
9 |
What is taught at Leith's School in London? |
|
Cookery (founded by Prue Leith) |
10 |
Who co–founded Microsoft along with Bill Gates? |
|
Paul Allen |
11 |
Which German officer was known as the Butcher of Lyon? |
|
Klaus Barbie |
12 |
In the TV series Keeping Up Appearances, who played the role of Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet)? |
|
Patricia Routledge |
13 |
In biology, what name is given to the naming and classification of species? |
|
Taxonomy |
14 |
Taxonomically speaking, what comes above the family? |
|
The order |
15 |
"Blood and Fire" is the motto of which organisation? |
|
The Salvation Army |
16 |
On which river does the city of Lancaster stand? |
|
The Lune |
17 |
Who is commemorated by a blue plaque in the ticket office of Mornington Crescent tube station? |
|
William (Willie)
Rushton |
18 |
Which eponymous heroine of a classic French novel poisons herself with arsenic when her lover refuses to give her money to settle a debt? |
|
Madame Bovary (by Gustave Flaubert) |
19 |
From which language do we get the word 'safari'? |
|
Swahili |
20 |
Who was the Italian Prime Minister murdered by the Red Brigades in 1978? |
|
Aldo Moro |
21 |
Which cyclist, born in Belgium with an Australian father, won gold, silver and bronze medals for Britain in the Athens Olympics? |
|
Bradley Wiggins |
22 |
Which famous street and square in New York are named after the fourth President of the United States? |
|
Madison
(Avenue and Square) |
23 |
Which famous actor and author played the killer of PC George Dixon in the 1950 film The Blue Lamp? |
|
Dirk Bogarde |
24 |
Which opera by Richard Strauss is named after a character from the Bible? |
|
Salome |
25 |
Which Secretary–General of the RMT Union led a rail strike in the UK in June 2022? |
|
Mick Lynch |
26 |
Sucre is the constitutional capital of which South American country? |
|
Bolivia (La Paz is the administrative capital) |
27 |
Who was King of Spain at the time of the attempted invasion of England by the Armada in 1588? |
|
Philip II (the
Second) |
28 |
Which insect larva is associated with sericulture? |
|
The silkworm |
29 |
According to legend, the playwright Aeschylus died when an eagle dropped what on his head? |
|
A tortoise |
30 |
Which eminent British colonial administrator also founded London Zoo, in Regent's Park, just before his death in 1825? |
|
Sir Stamford Raffles (founder of Singapore, etc.) |
31 |
On TV, by what nickname are Dave Myers and Si King better known? |
|
The Hairy Bikers (of cookery programme fame) |
32 |
In which century did China's Ming Dynasty end? |
|
The seventeenth (1644) |
33 |
Selenography is the study of what? |
|
The Moon |
34 |
Which Canadian singer was born Eileen Regina Edwards? |
|
Shania Twain |
35 |
Which model village, established in the Victorian era, has an art gallery devoted to the works of David Hockney? |
|
Saltaire (West Yorkshire) |
36 |
Kurt Waldheim was UN Secretary General in the 1970s, and later served as President of which country? |
|
Austria |
37 |
Edmond Dantès is the protagonist of which famous French novel? |
|
The Count of Monte Cristo (by Alexandre Dumas) |
38 |
Who is the current Shadow Home Secretary? |
|
Yvette Cooper |
39 |
Which was the first British ship to be sunk during the Falklands War? |
|
HMS Sheffield |
40 |
From which language do we get the word 'yoga'? |
|
Sanskrit |
41 |
Who wrote the opera Samson and Delilah and the orchestral piece Danse Macabre? |
|
Camille Saint–Saens |
42 |
Which product's advertising campaign featured an
arrangement by the Jacques Loussier Trio of Bach's Air on the G String? |
|
Hamlet
(cigars) |
43 |
Who said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"? |
|
Lord Acton |
44 |
Where is Lord Nelson Buried? |
|
St Paul's Cathedral |
45 |
Who had a hit record in 1978 with the words from Psalm 137? |
|
Boney M (By the Rivers of Babylon) |
46 |
In which English County would you find Sandown Park and Brooklands? |
|
Surrey |
47 |
Grammatically, to which part of speech do the words 'and',
'but', and 'or' belong? |
|
Conjunctions |
48 |
Who, in 1712, produced the first workable steam engine, which was improved fifty years later by James Watt? |
|
Thomas Newcomen |
49 |
Who is the current Secretary of State for Education? |
|
Gillian Keegan |
50 |
Which English King is commemorated in a statue by Carlo Marochetti situated just outside the House of Lords? |
|
Richard I
(Richard the Lionheart) - accept either |
51 |
What was Queen Mary referring to when she said to the wife of the Prime Minister, "Well, Mrs. Baldwin: this is a pretty
kettle of fish!"? |
|
The abdication crisis of Edward VIII (1936) |
52 |
Which US fur trader set up a frozen food business in 1924 after noticing how the people in Labrador preserved food for the winter? |
|
Clarence Birdseye |
53 |
Which online delivery service was founded in London in 2013 by William Shu and Greg Orlowski? |
|
Deliveroo |
54 |
Which dance was once described as "stubbing out cigarettes with both feet whilst drying your back with a towel"? |
|
The twist |
55 |
Who was the lead singer of the group Van Halen when they had a hit with the song Jump? |
|
David Lee Roth |
56 |
Which rare butterfly is named after the London borough in which it was first discovered in the UK? |
|
Camberwell beauty |
57 |
What is Mock Turtle soup made from? |
|
Calf's head |
58 |
What is the last book of the Old Testament? |
|
Malachi |
59 |
Who is the Chef Patron of Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire? |
|
Raymond Blanc |
60 |
Jamaica Pepper and Pimento are alternative names for which spice? |
|
Allspice |
61 |
"You hum it son, I'll play it" was a line from one of a long running series of TV adverts. What was the product
being advertised? |
|
PG Tips
(tea) |
62 |
Who painted Luncheon on the Grass (Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe), which caused a scandal when it was first shown
in 1863 as it juxtaposed a nude woman with several fully clothed men? |
|
Édouard Manet |
63 |
Which Dominican friar led the revolt in 1494 that expelled the ruling Medici family from Florence? |
|
Girolamo Savonarola |
64 |
Which Russian writer, famous for his plays and short stories, once said, "Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my
mistress"? |
|
Anton Chekhov |
65 |
Which town in the Scottish Borders is the burial place of Robert the Bruce (or his heart, at least) and the birthplace of seven–a–side rugby football? |
|
Melrose |
66 |
Who had a hit record in 1965 with the words from Ecclesiastes Chapter 3? |
|
The Byrds ("To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under the heaven". The song was
Turn! Turn! Turn! – written by Pete Seeger) |
67 |
What name was given to the periodic mob attacks on Jews in Russia, beginning in 1881? |
|
Pogroms |
68 |
Grammatically, to what part of speech do the words 'a', 'an' and
'the' belong? |
|
Articles |
69 |
The Age of Bronze, a figure of a nude male, was the first full–scale work by which sculptor? |
|
Auguste Rodin |
70 |
Which Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced Premium Bonds in 1956? |
|
Harold Macmillan |
71 |
Which breed of horse, dating back to 1580, is traditionally ridden at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna? |
|
Lipizzaner |
72 |
Which famous designer said, "A camel is a horse designed by a committee"? |
|
Sir Alec Issigonis |
73 |
Which vegetable is also known as 'ladies' fingers'? |
|
Okra |
74 |
Which English town, where mineral springs were discovered in 1618, is referred to in the more familiar term for hydrated magnesium sulphate? |
|
Epsom (Epsom
salts) |
75 |
What was the name of the ship commissioned by Fridtjof Nansen, and used for polar exploration by both Nansen and Roald Amundsen? |
|
The Fram |
76 |
Which French mariner sailed from his home town of St Malo in Brittany to explore the Gulf of St Lawrence in 1534? |
|
Jacques Cartier |
77 |
According to the Bible, who was the wife of King David and the mother of Solomon? |
|
Bathsheba |
78 |
Which writer created the amateur detective, Albert Campion? |
|
Margery Allingham |
79 |
From 1965 to 1972, the photographer David Bailey was married to which French actress? |
|
Catherine Deneuve |
80 |
The Strait of Bonifacio separates two Mediterranean islands, one French and one Italian. Name either. |
|
Corsica (French) or
Sardinia (Italian) |
81 |
Which substance, found in many fruits, makes jam 'set'? |
|
Pectin |
82 |
Tobermory is the only town on which Scottish island? |
|
Mull |
83 |
Name either of the two 1986 French films directed by Claude Berri
that were based on a two–part novel by Marcel Pagnol, and whose plot centres on a subterranean spring in Provence. |
|
Jean de Florette or
Manon des Sources |
84 |
In which British island group were the Churchill Barriers constructed during the Second World War to protect the British Fleet
anchored there? |
|
The Orkneys |
85 |
On which racecourse are the Rowley Mile and the July Course? |
|
Newmarket |
86 |
Which American film actor played himself in the 1955 war film biography To Hell and Back? |
|
Audie Murphy |
87 |
In traditional Japanese dress, what is an obi? |
|
A wide sash or belt (accept either) |
88 |
For which county team did Dr W.G. Grace play cricket? |
|
Gloucestershire |
89 |
Calamine, used to treat stings and burns, is a carbonate of which element? |
|
Zinc |
90 |
What type of creature is a colobus? |
|
A monkey |
91 |
In which country did the Frelimo movement fight? |
|
Mozambique |
92 |
Which island's name derives from a Latin word meaning
'Land of Honey'? |
|
Malta |
93 |
In distilling, around 2% of spirits evaporates through the cask whilst it is maturing. How is this lost quantity of spirit referred to? |
|
The angels'
share |
94 |
Which long–lived US comedian was born Nathan Birnbaum? |
|
George Burns |
95 |
By what name is the fragrant, white–flowering garden shrub Philadelphus commonly known? |
|
Mock orange |
96 |
In chess, what is defined as "the sacrifice of a piece in the early stages of a game, for the sake of a later advantage"? |
|
A gambit |
97 |
Who played Mike Gambit in The New Avengers, and died in March 2007? |
|
Gareth Hunt |
98 |
Which US composer was inspired to write El Salon Mexico by a visit to that country in 1936? |
|
Aaron Copland |
99 |
In which game do players sometimes use a device called a spider? |
|
Snooker |
100 |
In the Punch and Judy puppet theatre, what was the name of Mr Punch's dog? |
|
Toby |
101 |
Whose autobiography, published in 1954, was entitled My Left Foot? |
|
Christy Brown |
102 |
What was the name of Joe Brown's backing group? |
|
The Bruvvers |
103 |
Which motor manufacturer now owns Rolls–Royce Motor Cars? |
|
BMW |
104 |
What is a breviary? |
|
A condensed prayer book, hymn book, or
psalm book (accept any one of these) |
105 |
Which was the first city in the Southern hemisphere to host the Olympic Games? |
|
Melbourne (1956) |
106 |
Which noted football manager played around 100 games in Portuguese lower league football before taking his first managerial role at Benfica in 2000? |
|
Jose Mourinho |
107 |
In which series of adventure stories and films are John Clayton and Jane Porter the leading characters? |
|
The Tarzan stories (Tarzan is John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, Jane's surname is Porter) |
108 |
In Greek mythology, who was the avenger of crime and the dispenser of justice and retribution? |
|
Nemesis |
109 |
Peter Howitt directed the films Sliding Doors and Johnny English, but as an actor, in which popular British sitcom had he previously played a starring role? |
|
Bread (he was Joey Boswell) |
110 |
Which cartoonist created The Gambols, who appeared in the Daily Express from 1951 to 1994? |
|
Barry Appleby |
111 |
The Starbucks coffee shop chain is named after a character in which novel? |
|
Moby–Dick (Starbuck was Chief Mate of the
Pequod) |
112 |
Which seventeenth century artist painted a portrait of Charles I in Three Positions? |
|
Van Dyck |
113 |
Which American blacksmith invented the steel plough in 1837, after tiring of repairing cast iron ploughs? |
|
John Deere |
114 |
Which music–hall singer sang I'm One of the Ruins that Cromwell Knocked About a Bit and Oh, Mr Porter? |
|
Marie Lloyd |
115 |
Name either of the two men who became the first Britons to climb Everest in 1976. |
|
Dougal Haston or Doug
Scott |
116 |
FINA is the world–governing body for which sport? |
|
Swimming (also
diving, water polo and synchronised swimming – accept any of these) |
117 |
During World War II, which 'club' was composed of people whose lives had been saved by the Irvin parachute? |
|
The Caterpillar Club |
118 |
During World War II, which 'club' was composed of the patients of pioneering surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe? |
|
The Guinea Pig Club (they were treated for severe burns by plastic surgery, which was only at an experimental stage at that time) |
119 |
Which Canadian–born US economist coined the phrase "the affluent society"? |
|
J. K. Galbraith |
120 |
Which jazz musician and composer had the first names Leon Bismark? |
|
'Bix' Beiderbecke |
1 |
At 7,310 feet, Mount Kosciusko is the highest mountain in which country? |
|
Australia |
2 |
Which musical instrument has a name that originates in Hawaii and means 'jumping flea'? |
|
The ukulele |
3 |
Which US actress, the star of Hitchcock's 1943 film
Lifeboat, described herself as "pure as the driven slush"? |
|
Tallulah Bankhead |
4 |
In the Bible, who said "Am I my brother's keeper?"? |
|
Cain |
5 |
In Wuthering Heights, what is Cathy's surname (before she marries Edgar Linton)? |
|
Earnshaw |
6 |
What is the capital of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador? |
|
St John's |