Booker prize quiz

Is there a higher honour in English letters? Yes, and you win it by getting all these questions right
  
  


  1. Which book won the first ever Booker prize in 1969?

    1. Life & Times of Michael K by JM Coetzee

    2. Something to Answer For by PH Newby

    3. In a Free State by VS Naipaul

    4. Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

  2. And what is it about?

    1. A mystery set in Egypt in the 1950s

    2. An estate agent’s search for identity in India

    3. The swinging 60s as seen by a Cheltenham housewife

    4. A band of short people take on an evil empire and win

  3. Who refused to attend the prize ceremony without the assurance that he had won (he didn't)?

    1. William Golding

    2. Anthony Burgess

    3. Ian McEwan

    4. Dan Brown

  4. Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha won the prize in 1993 but which other novel was also published in the same year and failed to make the shortlist, prompting its publisher to describe the judges as "a bunch of wankers"?

    1. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

    2. Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer

    3. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively

    4. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

  5. Peter Carey triumphed in 1988 with Oscar and Lucinda, in front of which strongly-fancied contender?

    1. Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses

    2. Nadine Gordimer's July's People

    3. Iris Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea

    4. VS Naipaul's A Bend in the River

  6. "You never hear about a sportsman losing his sense of smell in a tragic accident, and for good reason; in order for the universe to teach excruciating lessons that we are unable to apply in later life, the sportsman must lose his legs, the philosopher his mind, the painter his eyes, the musician his ears, the chef his tongue." This is the opening of which novel shortlisted for this year's prize?

    1. The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

    2. The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie

    3. A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

    4. Le procès-verbal by JMG Le Clézio

  7. A Booker judge, speaking years later, said it was a "relief" after a children's book "which we could easily have shortlisted" found success elsewhere, but which was it?

    1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling

    2. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

    3. Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce

    4. Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman

  8. Which novel was described as "a disaster" in a review published before it won the Booker prize?

    1. Keri Hulme’s The Bone People

    2. Rites of Passage by William Golding

    3. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

    4. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre

  9. What controversy arose in 1988 when Michael Foot chaired the judges?

    1. He turned up to the prize ceremony dressed as a Regency dandy

    2. He was accused of backing The Satanic Verses because its author Rushdie was a member of the Labour Party

    3. One of the judges, Elizabeth Jane Howard, said that Ending Up by Kingsley Amis (then her husband) should go on the shortlist

    4. Foot regularly spent his summers at winner Peter Carey's Bondi Beach home

  10. "Anyone can do the washing-up; just get a big bowl and some liquid; so why complain about it?" Whose novels of domestic life was Booker judge Dame Rebecca West describing?

    1. Margaret Drabble

    2. Julian Barnes

    3. Doris Lessing

    4. Maeve Binchy

  11. Which of this year's shortlisted authors has previously judged the Booker?

    1. Steve Toltz

    2. Linda Grant

    3. Sebastian Barry

    4. Philip Hensher

  12. "The Booker is murder - absolutely nothing would be lost if it withered away and died." Which Booker winner's verdict on Britain's most prestigious literary prize?

    1. VS Naipaul

    2. Kazuo Ishiguro

    3. AS Byatt

    4. Ian McEwan

Solutions

1:B, 2:A, 3:B, 4:D, 5:A, 6:C, 7:B, 8:A, 9:B, 10:A, 11:D, 12:A

Scores

  1. 3 and above.

    <strong>Out of competition: </strong>Are you completely rubbish? Or are you the kind of uncompromising genius who doesn’t bother with this kind of tittle tattle, and we’ll be embarrassed to have so disrespected you when you get your Nobel

  2. 6 and above.

    <strong>Longlist: </strong>Your disappointing collection of mostly wrong answers depressed the judges, but we’re expected to draw up a really huge list of supposed contenders these days, so we’ll let you think you’re a contender for a few weeks before consigning you to the remaindered section

  3. 11 and above.

    <strong>Shortlist: </strong>It’s been a tremendously difficult decision, but for all your excellent answers we’re going to have to give the prize to someone better

  4. 12 and above.

    <strong>Winner: </strong>We’ve had many answers to consider for this, but yours have been intensely readable. It gives me really tremendous pleasure to give you this year’s Bookreader prize
 

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