Chiswick’s writers and books: How much do you know? Quiz answers

chiswick timeline of writers & books: a quick guide

CBF2019 Quiz winner 20200108_120517On December 24th 2019, we published a Christmas Quiz in conjunction with The Chiswick Calendar. All the questions are based on entries on The Chiswick Timeline of Writers and Books and the answers are below.

The winner was local author Robin Knight, who got 37 marks out of 40. The runners up were Diana Oppe, with 36, and Sara Gronmark with 35. The prize was a Folio Society edition of Alain-Fournier’s Le Grand Meaulnes, presented by Stephen Foster of Foster Books in Chiswick High Road. (Pictured right, with Robin Knight).

Chiswick Book Festival Quiz 2019 – The Answers

  1. Which Chiswick newspaper editor revealed the plot (dramatised in The Crown) to overthrow Harold Wilson’s government and replace him with Lord Mountbatten? HUGH CUDLIPP
  1. Which west London food charity was founded by the great grandson of the illustrator of the Chiswick Shakespeare? THE FELIX PROJECT
  1. Who was the Star Wars actor who lived on a houseboat in Chiswick and whose wife wrote a book called ‘Swans at my Window’? PHIL BROWN
  1. How did John Osborne receive the contract for his play Look Back in Anger to be produced at the Royal Court Theatre? GEORGE DEVINE ROWED TO HIS HOUSEBOAT WITH IT
  1. Who was the Government minister whose parents arranged for EM Forster to be celebrated with a blue plaque at Arlington Park Mansions? ED VAIZEY
  1. Where in Chiswick did the author of Empire of The Sun enjoy walking with his children? CHISWICK HOUSE GARDENS
  1. 175 years ago in Chiswick, how many giraffes greeted the Tsar of Russia and Prince Albert at ‘one of the grandest fetes ever held in England’? FOUR
  1. What event in Chiswick connects Alain-Fournier’s Le Grand Meaulnes and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby? A FETE AT THE SANDERSON SOCIAL CLUB IS SAID TO HAVE INSPIRED A KEY SCENE IN BOTH BOOKS
  1. What was Ralph Miliband doing in Chiswick when he wasn’t studying at Chiswick Public Library? CLEARING BOMBED OUT HOUSES
  1. Which Nobel Prize winner lived in Blenheim Road? WB YEATS
  1. Which Nobel Prize winner lived in Chiswick High Road? HAROLD PINTER
  1. Which Booker Prize winner lived in Barrowgate Road? IRIS MURDOCH
  1. Which Oscar-winning writer lived in Hartington Road? ROBERT BOLT
  1. Which Oscar-winning actress lived on Chiswick Mall? VANESSA REDGRAVE
  1. Name one of the two Chiswick writers buried in Poets Corner at Westminster Abbey. SIR JOHN DENHAM and REVD HENRY FRANCIS CARY
  1. In what year did a Poet Laureate and an exhibition help save the first garden suburb from the threat of redevelopment? 1967
  1. Which writer moved to Chiswick to mark William Shakespeare’s four hundredth birthday and discovered you could buy a house here for less than £3,000? ANTHONY BURGESS
  1. Name the autobiography of the comedy duo who started their career in digs with Mrs Duer in Clifton Gardens. ERIC & ERNIE
  1. What is the name of the house at Strand on the Green where the author of The Pursuit of Love and a celebrated ballet dancer have both lived? ROSE COTTAGE
  1. Name the wife of the vicar of St Nicholas Church in Chiswick who wrote 600 letters to an Austrian refugee during World War 2? MOLLY RICH
  1. Which treasure in the Bodleian Library was created by William Morris when he lived in Chiswick High Road? THE ODES OF HORACE
  1. Which Chiswick gardener later became an MP and designed the Crystal Palace? SIR JOSEPH PAXTON
  1. Who was the headmaster immortalised in the autobiography of a member of The Who, brought up in Chiswick? MR KIBBLEWHITE
  1. Which Chiswick screenwriter received an Oscar nomination for a Beatles film? ALUN OWEN
  1. Which Chiswick novelist’s “riotously funny account of a new mum who goes back to work as a spy” is recommended as a Christmas gift by the Telegraph’s Allison Pearson? ASIA MACKAY
  1. Who gave the director Peter Brook, born in Chiswick, a special theatre award last month? EVGENY LEBEDEV (EVENING STANDARD THEATRE AWARDS)
  1. Which Chiswick humorist died 50 years ago this month and was commemorated in The Oldie? STEPHEN POTTER
  1. Which novel with scenes set in Chiswick was dramatised by Tom Stoppard for an award-winning BBC TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch? PARADE’S END
  1. Who called Chiswick House “my earthly paradise”? GEORGIANA, DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE
  1. Name two people on the Chiswick Timeline of Writers and Books who created the musical Cats. TWO FROM: ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER, GILLIAN LYNNE, WAYNE SLEEP
  1. Which Chiswick-born collector has a gallery devoted to his finds in the Museum of London? THOMAS LAYTON
  1. Name two artists on the Chiswick Timeline of art and maps, the mural at Turnham Green tube station, who also appear on the Chiswick Timeline of Writers and Books? WILLIAM HOGARTH and ANTHEA CRAIGMYLE
  1. Which two addresses in Chiswick have rival claims to be where Becky Sharpe threw the dictionary in Vanity Fair? WALPOLE HOUSE and CHISWICK SQUARE
  1. In which book does GK Chesterton parody Bedford Park as “Saffron Park”? THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY
  1. Where in Chiswick House can you find a portrait of Alexander Pope? THE BEDCHAMBER
  1. Name the trilogy of novels, featuring scenes in Chiswick, by the writer commemorated with a blue plaque in Burlington Gardens. TWENTY THOUSAND STREETS UNDER THE SKY
  1. 60 years ago, who topped the bill at the final performance at the Chiswick Empire? LIBERACE
  1. Which member of a famous chocolate family has written about Queen Victoria’s matchmaking? DEBORAH CADBURY
  1. Which Prime Minister is identified as No 100 in the key to the painting ‘The Royal Garden Party at Chiswick’. RT. HON. WE GLADSTONE
  1. Which Sunday newspaper carried the headline “Put the word out: Chiswick may be the UK’s most literary location”? THE OBSERVER
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