1. Currently causing something of a stir in the US, Curtis Sittenfeld American Wife follows the relationship between Alice and Charlie Blackwell, ciphers for which presidential couple?

   1. Laura and George W Bush

   2. Michelle and Barack Obama

   3. Bill and Hillary Clinton

   4. Ronald and Nancy Reagan

2. Which of these novelists has Barack Obama said he enjoys?

   1. Stephen King

   2. Dan Brown

   3. Toni Morrison

   4. Joyce Carol Oates

3. Which book, claimed by George Bush to be his favourite read from childhood, was actually first published when he was 23?

   1. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

   2. The Hungry Caterpillar

   3. The Cat in the Hat

   4. Five Go Mad in Texas

4. In Robert Penn Warren's classic tale of the rise and fall of a political titan in the deep South during the 1930s, All the King's Men, what does the Theory of the Great Twitch refer to?

   1. Bizarre voter behaviour on polling day

   2. The economics of the Great Depression

   3. Responsibility and self-determination

   4. The reliably high sex drive of leading politicians

5. Which president is fictionalised in Glen David Gold's Carter Beats the Devil?

   1. Calvin Coolidge

   2. Harry S Truman

   3. Jimmy Carter

   4. Warren G Harding

6. Don DeLillo's Libra is a fictional account of which episode of presidential history?

   1. The assassination of John F Kennedy

   2. Watergate

   3. The impeachment of Bill Clinton

   4. The impact on her husband’s government of Nancy Reagan’ astrological beliefs

7. What happens to the president in Clive Cussler’s Deep Six?

   1. He is transported to another dimension

   2. He throws away his life in politics to become a monk

   3. He is brainwashed by Soviet forces

   4. He saves Earth from an asteroid thanks to his previous experience as a miner

8. Mario Puzo’s The Fourth K features a fictional nephew of John F Kennedy as president. But what is his name?

   1. Francis Xavier Kennedy

   2. JJ Kennedy

   3. Martin Luther Kennedy

   4. Kenny Kennedy

9. On which real-life president did Joe Klein base his fictional premier Jack Stanton?

   1. Jimmy Carter

   2. John F Kennedy

   3. Ronald Reagan

   4. Bill Clinton

10. Which book was George W. Bush reading to school children on 9/11?

    1. Aliens Love Underpants

    2. The Pet Goat

    3. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

    4. The Tiger Who Came To Tea

11. Who is the author of Empire, in which the president and vice president are assassinated by terrorists?

    1. Orson Scott Card

    2. Harry Turtledove

    3. Michael Crichton

    4. Jeffrey Archer

12. Who defeats Roosevelt in Philip Roth’s counterfactual history The Plot Against America?

    1. Harry S Truman

    2. Charles Lindbergh

    3. Joseph Stalin

    4. Cary Grant

13. “There are a few things you need to know about my dad, and one of them is that he would make a great president. But to know what makes him great, you have to hear his story first.” Whose daughter wrote a children’s book about her father, a presidential candidate?

    1. George W Bush

    2. Barack Obama

    3. John McCain

    4. Al Gore

14. Which president does Gore Vidal describe, in a work of historical fiction, as a tyrannical character who is "almost diabolically unknowable in his use of power"?

    1. Ronald Reagan

    2. Abraham Lincoln

    3. John F Kennedy

    4. George W Bush

15. The Hornet's Nest, a novel about America's war of independence, was written by which US president?

    1. Lyndon Johnson

    2. John F Kennedy

    3. Jimmy Carter

    4. George W Bush

Solutions

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

Scores

1. 4 and above.

   No, you can't. You make W look like Umberto Eco

2. 8 and above.

   The audacity of hope. The disappointment of experience

3. 12 and above.

   Pretty good, actually, but our electoral college still declares you a loser

4. 15 and above.

   Yes, you could! A landslide victory