Q 01/05

What did William Shakespeare leave his wife Anne Hathaway in his will, in the document's only bequest to her?

A) The Globe shares

B) The second-best bed

C) The Stratford house

D) The family Bible

Answer · why

B) The second-best bed

The second-best bed, 'with the furniture', was added to the will on 25 March 1616, a month before Shakespeare died; scholars still argue whether it wa...

Q 02/05

Which diarist buried his wine and a Parmesan cheese in his garden to save them from the Great Fire of London?

A) John Evelyn

B) Samuel Pepys

C) Daniel Defoe

D) Izaak Walton

Answer · why

B) Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys dug the hole with his neighbour 'Pen' as the flames spread, and wrote his whole diary in shorthand so that no contemporary could read it.

Q 03/05

Which novelist's ashes lie in Poets' Corner while his heart was buried in his first wife's grave at Stinsford?

A) Charles Dickens

B) Alfred Tennyson

C) Robert Browning

D) Thomas Hardy

Answer · why

D) Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy had asked to be buried whole in the Stinsford churchyard, and the split was a compromise between his family and those who insisted on a W...

Q 04/05

Which crime writer vanished for eleven days, surfacing at a Harrogate hotel under her husband's mistress's surname?

A) Agatha Christie

B) Dorothy L. Sayers

C) Ngaio Marsh

D) Margery Allingham

Answer · why

A) Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie signed in as 'Mrs Tressa Neele', Neele being the name of the woman her husband Archie wanted to leave her for, and was found there on ...

Q 05/05

At which Swiss waterfall did Arthur Conan Doyle send Sherlock Holmes to his apparent death, a killing he later undid?

A) Rhine Falls

B) Staubbach Falls

C) Reichenbach Falls

D) Trümmelbach Falls

Answer · why

C) Reichenbach Falls

Reichenbach Falls, above Meiringen, is where Holmes and Moriarty grapple in 'The Final Problem'; public pressure brought the detective back in 'The Ad...