1. Which writer featured in a Beyoncé track?

   1. NoViolet Bulawayo

   2. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

   3. Edwidge Danticat

   4. Taiye Selasi

2. What is the distinctive characteristic of Cormoran Strike, the detective in JK Rowling’s debut crime novel (as Robert Galbraith) The Cuckoo’s Calling?

   1. autistic

   2. one-legged

   3. addicted to Dungeons and Dragons

   4. strong Cornish accent

3. Who was not one of Granta’s best young British novelists?

   1. NoViolet Bulawayo

   2. Sunjeev Sahota

   3. Evie Wyld

   4. Helen Oyeyemi

4. Which author or co-author of one of the year’s top 10 bestselling books was also in the recent series of Strictly Come Dancing?

   1. David Walliams

   2. Michael Mosley

   3. Dave Myers

   4. Rachel Joyce

5. What links the books that won the Women’s fiction, Man Booker and Dylan Thomas prizes in 2013, besides female authors?

   1. white covers

   2. astrology

   3. same publisher (Granta)

   4. historical fiction

6. 

   According to Shane Salerno and David Shields in Salinger, the author of the Catcher in the Rye was tormented into art by which medical condition?

   1. an undescended testicle

   2. obsessive compulsive disorder

   3. ringworm

   4. eczema

7. The author of the shortest novel ever to win the Booker prize was the subject of a major biography this year. Was it …

   1. Ian McEwan

   2. Julian Barnes

   3. Penelope Fitzgerald

   4. Eleanor Catton

8. Which football manager was the protagonist of an epic novel?

   1. Alex Ferguson

   2. Brian Clough

   3. Ron Knee

   4. Bill Shankly

9. Whose new novel began with a bomb exploding?

   1. Donna Tartt

   2. Ian Rankin

   3. JK Rowling

   4. Joanna Trollope

10. Lucy Hughes-Hallett won the Samuel Johnson prize for her biography of the roguish Italian poet Gabriele d’Annunzio. What was it called?

    1. The Hake

    2. The Pike

    3. The Shark

    4. The Dolphin

11. Asterix was back, but which tribe did he hook up with?

    1. The Iceni

    2. The Grebos

    3. The Picts

    4. The Geats

12. What links Eleanor Catton, Rachel Cusk and Alice Munro?

    1. they have lived in Yorkshire

    2. Pisceans

    3. Bret Easton Ellis attacked them on Twitter

    4. they were born in Canada

13. It was claimed in court that Charles Saatchi sent servants out to buy copies of his own books in the hope of getting them into the bestseller lists. What is his latest book about?

    1. cupcakes

    2. the art world

    3. the language of advertising and PR

    4. amazing un-doctored photographs

Solutions

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

Scores

1. 4 and above.

   Time to visit your local library!

2. 9 and above.

   Good close reading skills – but always room for improvement.

3. 11 and above.

   Have you considered writing your own book, clever-clogs?