The Borrowers
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50 free The Borrowers trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Mary Norton's The Borrowers begins with a simple, irresistible idea: the small household things that go missing have been carried off by tiny people living out of sight. Arrietty Clock and her parents, Pod and Homily, have kept readers company since the first novel appeared in 1952, through four sequels that take them far beyond the floorboards. This quiz covers all of it. There are questions on the first book and its characters, on the Clocks' later adventures out of doors, and on Norton herself. It also follows the Borrowers to the screen: the 1997 film with John Goodman as the villain, the BBC versions, an American television special and the Japanese animated film Arrietty. It is pitched for anyone who loved the books as a child or grew up with one of the adaptations. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can pick up the details you missed along the way.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1971 Disney film was adapted from two earlier novels by Borrowers author Mary Norton?
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Bedknobs and Broomsticks drew on The Magic Bed Knob and its sequel, which Norton wrote years before she invented the Borrowers.
Q 02Which future Harry Potter actor made his film debut as the Clock family's son in 1997's The Borrowers?
Tom Felton
Tom Felton landed the part after appearing in commercials, four years before the first Harry Potter film reached cinemas.
Q 03Which Japanese company adapted Mary Norton's The Borrowers as the 2010 animated film Arrietty?
Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli saw Arrietty become the top-grossing Japanese film of 2010 at Japan's own box office.
Q 04Which future Marvel star's first film role was voicing the boy Sho in the British dub of Arrietty?
Tom Holland
Tom Holland began his film career with a voice part: the UK version reached cinemas in 2011, and the later American dub used a different cast.
Q 05What do the tiny Borrowers of Mary Norton's novels call the full-sized people whose homes they share?
Human beans
Human beans is a Borrower mispronunciation of human beings, and a Borrower's whole way of life depends on never being seen by one.
Q 06What is the profession of Ocious P. Potter, the villain John Goodman plays in the 1997 film The Borrowers?
Lawyer
Lawyer Ocious P. Potter deceives the family living in the house so that he can demolish it and build on the land.
Q 07Which future Lord of the Rings actor played Pod Clock in the BBC's 1992 series The Borrowers?
Ian Holm
Ian Holm acted opposite his real-life wife in the series: she played Pod's wife, Homily.
Q 08In Mary Norton's The Borrowers, what does a Borrower surname such as Clock or Overmantel reveal?
Where the family lives
Where the family lives: the Clocks' home lies beneath a grandfather clock, and the Overmantels lived on the drawing-room mantelpiece.
Q 09At a dairy in the 1997 film The Borrowers, John Goodman's villain leaves the Clock family to drown in what?
Liquid cheese
Liquid cheese almost finishes off the Clocks before the boy Pete arrives and saves them just in time.
Q 10John Goodman, the villain of 1997's The Borrowers, was famous on television as Dan Conner in which sitcom?
Roseanne
Roseanne ended its original run in 1997, the same year Goodman swapped the good-natured Dan for a scheming villain.
Q 11In Mary Norton's The Borrowers, the Boy who befriends Arrietty was raised in which country before coming to England?
India
India is why the Boy reads English slowly, so the two strike a bargain: he brings Arrietty books and she reads them to him.
Q 12What trade does Pod Clock practise under the floor in The Borrowers, using beads and old kid gloves?
Shoemaker
Shoemaker Pod turns his finds into tiny button boots, and he is just as quick at inventing and improvising when a borrowing trip goes wrong.
Q 13In Mary Norton's The Borrowers, which newly arrived household animal is blamed for a young Borrower's disappearance?
A cat
A cat was the danger nobody had mentioned to the girl: her family hid the risks of the house from her, so she wandered out to explore.
Q 21Which leading British children's book award did Mary Norton win for the first Borrowers novel?
Carnegie Medal
Carnegie Medal judges named it the outstanding children's book of its year, and in 2007 it was picked as one of the top ten winners in the prize's first 70 years.
Q 22Mary Norton grew up in a Georgian house, the reputed model for The Borrowers, in which English town?
Leighton Buzzard
Leighton Buzzard still has the house: it is now part of a middle school, where it is known as The Old House.
Q 23Where was Mary Norton working for the British Purchasing Commission when she began writing?
New York City
Q 14Which cousin of Arrietty Clock was presumed eaten after wandering out to explore in Mary Norton's The Borrowers?
Eggletina
Eggletina turns out to be alive in the next novel, where Arrietty finally meets her: a thin, shy girl.
Q 15Which elderly relation tells young Kate the story of the Borrowers at the start of Mary Norton's novel?
Mrs May
Mrs May heard the tale from her younger brother, the boy who claimed he had befriended a Borrower while staying at the old house.
Q 16Which housekeeper and cook discovers the Clock family beneath the floorboards in Mary Norton's The Borrowers?
Mrs Driver
Mrs Driver spots candlelight shining up through the floorboards one night and thinks she has found a hoard of stolen goods.
Q 17Which gardener in Mary Norton's The Borrowers suspects the Boy of keeping a pet ferret in the fields?
Crampfurl
Crampfurl had watched the Boy calling for an uncle out in a field; he was really trying to deliver Arrietty's letter to her relatives.
Q 18In The Borrowers, bedridden Great-Aunt Sophy thinks Pod Clock is a hallucination brought on by which drink?
Wine
Wine is her constant bedside companion, so Pod can visit her quite openly: she never believes that he is real.
Q 19Where are Uncle Hendreary and his family said to have emigrated in Mary Norton's first Borrowers novel?
A badger sett
A badger sett two fields from the house is where the Boy carries Arrietty's letter, and he brings back a puzzling reply.
Q 20In Mary Norton's The Borrowers, what does the Boy bring the Clock family as gifts from the old nursery?
Dollhouse furniture
Dollhouse furniture begins a golden age of gift after gift for the Clocks, and in return Arrietty is allowed outside to read to the Boy.
New York City was her base during the Second World War, and a picture-book version of her first story came out in America before the book appeared in Britain.
Q 24Which illustrator of C. S. Lewis's Narnia books drew the pictures for the British edition of The Borrowers Avenged?
Pauline Baynes
Pauline Baynes took over from Diana Stanley for the final novel, which arrived more than 20 years after the fourth.
Q 25Which wild, outdoor-living Borrower befriends the Clocks and brings them meat in Mary Norton's The Borrowers Afield?
Spiller
Spiller took his name from the only thing he can remember his family calling him: Dreadful Spiller.
Q 26In the BBC's 1992 series The Borrowers, which cast-off object becomes the Clocks' home after they flee the manor?
An old boot
An old boot shelters the family in the open countryside until they are reunited with relations who had fled the same manor before them.
Q 27In The Borrowers Afloat, which household object carries the Clock family downstream when rain sets it adrift?
A tea kettle
A tea kettle was only meant to be a hideout while a friend scouted ahead, and none of the Clocks can swim.
Q 28In Mary Norton's Borrowers novels, what is Little Fordham, a place that became legendary among Borrowers?
A model village
A model village offers a whole settlement at Borrower scale, plus plenty of food dropped by the big people who come to visit.
Q 29In The Borrowers Aloft, the kidnapped Clock family escape from an attic in which home-made craft?
A balloon
A balloon came to mind after Arrietty read about ballooning in old newspapers during a winter shut in the attic.
Q 30In The Borrowers Avenged, the Clock family settle under a window seat in which kind of old building?
A rectory
A rectory proves a lucky choice: their Borrower relatives turn out to be living in the church next door.