Quiz: Literary London

To coincide with the London Literary Festival, we are taking a stroll through the fictional nooks and crannies of the capital. Join us
  
  


  1. What was the original title of JM Barrie's Peter Pan?

    1. Peter Pan in SW1

    2. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

    3. Peter Pan in Leather Lane

    4. Peter Pan in Sloane Square

  2. Which contemporary novel features the Black Cross Pub on Portobello Road?

    1. Only in London by Hanan al-Shaykh

    2. The Buddha of Surburbia by Hanif Kureishi

    3. London Fields by Martin Amis

    4. Shameless by Paul Burston

  3. In The Pickwick Papers, whose knowledge of London is "extensive and peculiar"?

    1. Sam Weller

    2. Mr Tupman

    3. Dr Slammer

    4. Mr Snodgrass

  4. Sherlock Holmes lived at which number Baker Street?

    1. 3b

    2. 221b

    3. 40

    4. 21a

  5. Which crime writer wrote a thriller concerned with the people and places of the London Underground?

    1. Barbara Vine

    2. Patricia Cornwell

    3. Janet Evanovich

    4. Minette Walters

  6. Which children's writer was so ashamed of his first book, Lovers in London, that he bought back the copyright to avoid it being republished?

    1. Lewis Carroll

    2. Melvin Burgess

    3. Philip Pullman

    4. AA Milne

  7. Which fictional character lived at The Laurels, Brickfield Terrace, Holloway?

    1. Mr Pickwick

    2. Mr Pooter

    3. Mr Bean

    4. Mr Benn

  8. "Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song ..." From which author did TS Eliot borrow this line for The Waste Land?

    1. Edmund Spenser

    2. Alexander Pope

    3. Lord Byron

    4. Cole Porter

  9. Which of these is not a real book title?

    1. Liza of Lambeth

    2. Brixton Rock

    3. The Ballad of Peckham Rye

    4. West Ruislip Story

  10. Which part of London did "itinerant philosopher" Christopher Ross explore?

    1. The underground in Tunnel Visions

    2. Docklands in A River Runs Through It

    3. Canary Wharf in The Tower and the Glory

    4. The bus network in On the Buses

  11. In which "novel without a hero" do the characters visit Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens?

    1. A Clockwork Orange

    2. Dombey & Son

    3. Keep the Aspidistra Flying

    4. Vanity Fair

  12. Where does the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down come from?

    1. A Dickens sketch

    2. An 11th-century Norse poem

    3. The Canterbury Tales

    4. Military codes in the second world war

  13. Which anonymous 15th-century poem did Peter Ackroyd use as the title of one of his books?

    1. The Limehouse Golem

    2. Bartholemew Fair

    3. A Dead Man in Deptford

    4. London Lickpenny

  14. How does 12th-century historian Geoffrey of Monmouth explain the origins of the word London?

    1. From 'Caer-Ludd' or Lud's Town, after King Lud (73BC)

    2. From the Old English 'al lone', as it was the preeminent settlement in Britain

    3. From the Welsh 'llun', meaning cesspit

    4. From the Norse 'landor', meaning 'river head'

  15. Which book by San Franciscan writer Armistead Maupin is set predominantly in London?

    1. Babycakes

    2. Maybe the Moon

    3. The Night Listener

    4. Further Tales of the City

  16. An urge to get away from which "Teflon meteorite" made Iain Sinclair think it was a good idea to walk around the M25 for his book London Orbital?

    1. Tony Blair

    2. The Millennium Dome

    3. The new Olympic stadium in Stratford

    4. Bluewater shopping centre

  17. Its film adaptation was a spectacular flop, but this Colin MacInnes novel about multicultural life in west London remains a metropolitan classic. Its title?

    1. Sex Lives of the Potato Men

    2. Absolute Beginners

    3. Hangover Square

    4. Notting Hill

  18. Which futuristic novel features a king elected by lottery and a provost prepared to take up arms to defend a street in his district from demolition?

    1. A Stockwell Stalin

    2. Waterloo Bridge

    3. The Rock of Crack as Big as the Ritz

    4. The Napoleon of Notting Hill

  19. One address in London has been home to numerous literary figures, from Lord Byron to Aldous Huxley and more recently to Alan Clark. Do you know it?

    1. The Groucho Club

    2. No 1, London

    3. The Albany

    4. The Savoy

  20. The central character of Will Self's The North London Book of the Dead is surprised to find his dead mother residing in which London district?

    1. Camden Town

    2. Chelsea

    3. Cockfosters

    4. Crouch End

Solutions

1:B, 2:C, 3:A, 4:B, 5:A, 6:D, 7:B, 8:A, 9:D, 10:A, 11:D, 12:B, 13:D, 14:A, 15:A, 16:B, 17:B, 18:D, 19:C, 20:D

Scores

  1. 7 and above.

    You clearly don't know your Arsenal from your Eltham. Try reading a few more Captain Cooks.

  2. 15 and above.

    You scrape silver, but more Southend than East End. Feed your brain with some pie and mash and give it another go.

  3. 20 and above.

    Cor lummee! Yer the business, me old china plate. Go fer gold!

 

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