Q 01/05

In which English county was Thomas Hardy born and did he set most of his fiction?

A) Dorset

B) Somerset

C) Wiltshire

D) Devon

Answer · why

A) Dorset

He was born in the hamlet of Higher Bockhampton, just east of the county town, in 1840.

Q 02/05

What was the trade of Hardy's father?

A) Stonemason and builder

B) Schoolmaster

C) Parish clerk

D) Farm labourer

Answer · why

A) Stonemason and builder

His mother Jemima was well read and taught him at home until he was eight.

Q 03/05

What is the name of the semi-fictional region in which Hardy set his novels?

A) Mercia

B) Barsetshire

C) Loamshire

D) Wessex

Answer · why

D) Wessex

He first used the name in his fourth novel, borrowing it from the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom.

Q 04/05

To which profession was the 16-year-old Hardy apprenticed, since his family could not afford university?

A) Printing

B) Medicine

C) Solicitor's law

D) Architecture

Answer · why

D) Architecture

He worked for the local architect James Hicks and later designed his own house.

Q 05/05

In the mid-1860s Hardy supervised excavation of part of which London graveyard to make way for a railway?

A) St Paul's Covent Garden

B) Highgate Cemetery

C) St Pancras Old Church

D) Bunhill Fields

Answer · why

C) St Pancras Old Church

The Midland Railway was being extended to its new terminus at St Pancras.