ROUND 1 - Paired

1.

Born in North Germany in 1858, which scientist gives his name to the constant that is approximately equal to 6.63 x 10^-34 Joule-seconds and is commonly denoted by the letter h?

2.

Which scientist, born in Vienna in 1844, gives his name to the constant that is approximately equal to 1.38 x 10^-23 Joules per Kelvin and is commonly denoted by either k or k_B?

3.

Which band holds the record for the most Top Ten singles (18 in all) without ever reaching Number One in the UK?  Their first Top Ten hit was in 1986, but the closest they came to the top spot was with the song Always, which reached Number 2 in 1994.

4.

Which artist has had 17 Top Ten singles without a Number One?  This person’s first Top Ten single was in 1986, and this person twice reached Number 2 in the charts: a duet with Luther Vandross in 1992 called The Best Things in Life Are Free; and with That's the Way Love Goes in 1993

5.

Moroni is the capital of which country, situated about midway between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn?

6.

Malé is the capital of which country, situated a few degrees north of the Equator?

7.

Didier Deschamps and Franz Beckenbauer have won the men's football World Cup as both a player and a manager.  Which Brazilian is the only other person to have accomplished this feat?

8.

Which footballer, this year, became the fifth person to score in both men's World Cup and European Cup/Champions League?  This player is also one of only three footballers to have scored in European Cup/Champions League finals for two different teams, doing so for Bayern Munich and Juventus.

Sp1

Born in Turin in 1776, which scientist, gives his name to the constant that is approximately equal to 6.02 x 10²³ molecules per mole and is commonly denoted by N_A?

Sp2

Situated seven degrees north of the equator and on a similar longitude to western New Zealand, Majuro is the capital of which country?

Go to Round 1 questions with answers

ROUND 2 - Hidden theme

1.

Which inland city is the fifth most populous city in the United States?  The largest musical instrument museum in the world was opened there in 2010.

2.

Which Noel Coward play, adapted into a film in 1945, takes its title from a line of Shelley’s To a Skylark?

3.

Born in Ulster County, New York in about 1797, who was the first black woman honoured with a bust in the U.S. Capitol? (first name and surname required)

4.

A Monty Python sketch featuring John Cleese as a cinema usherette, selling a sea-bird instead of the traditional ice creams, references which literary work of 1798?

5.

In 2017, Emily Wilson became the first woman to publish an English translation of which work?  Other noted translators of this work include Alexander Pope, William Morris and Robert Fagles.

6.

Which people founded a village at the site now known as L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, around 1000 CE?

7.

The son of Ares and Aphrodite, which figure in Greek myth is the personification of fear, along with twin brother Deimos.  His Roman equivalent is called Timor or Timorus.

8.

A full-scale replica of which brig has been constructed at the Nao Victoria Museum in Punta Arenas, Chile?  The original was built in Woolwich Dockyard and entered service in 1820.

Sp

Which Italian astronomer mistakenly observed linear structures on Mars, which he called ‘canali’? Mistranslations of this gave rise to speculation that Mars was inhabited by intelligent, canal-digging, beings.

Go to Round 2 questions with answers

ROUND 3 - Another Postcode Round

This round concerns UK Postcode Areas whose two-letter codes are abbreviations of other things.

1.

Localities: Bramley, Blubberhouses, Ilkley and Otley

Answer required: unit of length used in astronomy

2.

Localities: Branston, Holland Fen, Horncastle and Mablethorpe

Answer required: mathematical term associated with the constant ‘e’

3.

Localities: Scarborough, Whitby, Bridlington and Driffield

Answer required: an exclamation

4.

Localities: Bentilee, Blythe Bridge, Barlaston and Biddulph

Answer required: Science-fiction franchise that originated in the mid-1960s

5.

Localities: Crawshawbooth, Oswaldtwistle, Dunnockshaw and Barnoldswick

Answer required: Caribbean island (via internet code)

6.

Localities: Bridge of Don, Bridge of Dee, Spittal of Glenmuick and Stonehaven

Answer required: Canadian province

7.

Localities: Cowbridge, Tonypandy, Aberdare and Penderyn

Answer required: meaning of a term used in footnotes (a single Latin or English word is enough)

8.

Localities: Wallsend, Cramlington, Haltwhistle and Whitley Bay

Answer required: chemical element

Sp

Localities: South Cave, North Ferriby, Cottingham and Beverley

Answer required: European country (via internet country code)

Go to Round 3 questions with answers

ROUND 4 - "Daisy, Daisy, Give Me Your Answer Do" Bingo Round

Choose a number 1 to 10 to get your question

1.

Caused by the refraction of light by ice crystals in the atmosphere, the luminous ring sometimes observed surrounding the sun or the moon is known by what four-letter term?

2.

Born in Bournemouth in 1880 and christened Marguerite, which author was prosecuted for obscenity in 1928 as the author of The Well of Loneliness?  (given name and surname required)

3.

Pathfinders: the Golden Age of Arabic Science, and Paradox: The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics are works by which scientist and broadcaster, born in 1962 in Baghdad?

4.

Helen Huntingdon, most commonly known under her alias ‘Helen Graham’ is the main female character of which novel, first published in 1848 under a pseudonym?

5.

What is the correct anatomical name for bones of the fingers or toes?

6.

Scene 32 of the Bayeux Tapestry shows people pointing at the sky and bears the Latin inscription ‘isti mirant stella’.  To what specific object does the word ‘stella’ refer here?

7.

"All things are from water and all things are resolved into water."  These words are attributed to which pre-Socratic philosopher, born in Miletus around 625 B.C.?

8.

Which Indo-European language is the most-spoken language of Sri Lanka?

9.

Meaning a time of freedom from care, for example the 1970s, what term is derived from the belief that during the nesting period of kingfishers around the winter solstice, the sea always remained calm?

10.

The only words uttered by the title character of which narrative poem of 1842 are: "I am half sick of shadows", and "the curse is come upon me"?

Go to Round 4 questions with answers

ROUND 5 - Hidden theme

1.

What name was given to a film adaptation of Roger Zelazny’s novel Lord of Light that was to be filmed in Iran in 1979-80?  While it was never actually produced, its production gave cover to other events that were dramatised as an Oscar-winning film under the same name.

2.

About 200km east of Jamaica, what is the most populous island in the Caribbean.  Roughly in the middle is Pico Duarte, the highest point in the region.

3.

Which gem is, in the Sherlock Holmes story, hidden inside one of six plaster busts of Napoleon?

4.

Which family of cephalopods are the only ones to have an external shell?  Their name derives ultimately from the Greek for ‘sailor’.

5.

Only two Oxford colleges are named after Scottish people: Somerville, after polymath and scientist Mary Somerville, is one.  What is the other?

6.

Which actress played the young Jean Grey in the 2016 film X-Men: Apocalypse, but is probably best known for her work on a well-known fantasy TV series?  (first name and surname required)

7.

The Kate Bush song The Sensual World was, in 2011, re-recorded as Flower of the Mountain, using only words spoken in a soliloquy by a character from which novel?

8.

In CSI: Miami, which character is played by David Caruso?  (surname alone is enough)

Sp1

Which indigenous American people fought an eponymous war against the New England colonies between 1636 and 1638?

Sp2

Which Premier League club had the most players representing it amongst the four semi-finalists from this year’s FIFA men’s World Cup?

Go to Round 5 questions with answers

ROUND 6 - 'Meet the Illuminati'

1.

The year the Romans captured Caratacus; the WW2 ‘Mustang’ fighter aircraft; Washington DC and Puerto Rico, for example; the chemical element antimony.  What two-digit number links all of these?

2.

What surname links: a George Bernard Shaw play about prostitution; the author of All The King’s Men; the creator of Coronation Street, and the United States Chief Justice during most of the 1960s?

3.

(A two-word answer is required here)  The first word is the adjective E M  Forster applied to fictional characters that are not ‘capable of surprising in a convincing way’. The second word precedes ‘has not anything to show more fair’ in a poem by Wordsworth.

4.

The ‘Phantom Time Hypothesis’ states that the papacy and leading secular rulers fabricated the history of the years 614 to 911 (yes, really).  This resulted in which Holy Roman Emperor being on the throne in the significant year A.D. 1000?  Only the regnal name is required, which he shares with the head of the House of Habsburg from 1922 to 2011, and the Chancellor of the German Empire from 1871 to 1890?

5.

Which small city has a name that is an anagram of a word that could be described as: ‘Sonia and George', the latter being the author of Keep the Aspidistra Flying?  The city in question is located midway between Phoenix, Arizona and Dallas, Texas.

6.

Which journalist and TV presenter wrote the 2009 work, Voodoo Histories: the role of Conspiracy Theory in Modern History?  In 1975, he was on the Manchester team on University Challenge, and was heard to give answers such as "Trotsky", "Marx" and "Che Guevara".

7.

What two-word term is often expressed as 'entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity'?  It comprises the name of a village in a Surrey, followed by a cutting instrument.

8.

‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence’; this aphorism is often named after which prominent U.S astronomer, who died in 1996?

Sp

Making allowance for minor variations in spelling, the two-word name of what US location may be expressed as: ‘Middle English dream poem translated by Simon Armitage’ and ‘first word in the name of the tram stop between Anchorage, Broadway and MediaCityUK’?

Go to Round 6 questions with answers

ROUND 7 - 'Horror with a Festive Twist'

1.

Who wrote the seasonal supernatural novels The Chimes, The Haunted Man and The Battle Of Life?

2.

Which prominent writer of ghost stories published Ghost Stories of an Antiquary in 1904, a collection of spooky tales he had composed to tell to friends at Christmas?

3.

In which film of 1984 does Billy receive a cute creature called a Mogwai as a Christmas present?  A failure to follow his new pet's strict dietary and care requirements lead to monstrous trouble.

4.

Which 1988 comedy stars Bill Murray as a cynical television executive who is visited by three ghosts who are sent to teach him the error of his ways?

5.

Which anthology series, written by and starring Steve Pemberton and Rhys Shearsmith, included the very dark seasonal episode The Devil of Christmas as part of its third series in 2016?

6.

Often dark and disturbing, which futuristic drama anthology series by Charlie Brooker included the bleak 2014 Christmas special White Christmas?

7.

Which band recorded the Monster's Holiday, a festive sequel to their much-loved Halloween classic Monster Mash?

8.

First recorded by Elmo & Patsy in 1979, which novelty Christmas song, has become something of a festive favourite on radio stations in recent years?  It concerns the mysterious death of an old lady on Christmas Eve which bears all the hallmarks of a hit-and-run involving Santa's sleigh.

Go to Round 7 questions with answers

ROUND 8 - A Round themed around endings and last things

1.

Whose are the last spoken words in Homer’s Iliad?  They call for wood for a funeral pyre.

2.

Which book, released in 2007 and the last in a decade-long series, concludes with the words, "All was well"?

3.

Born in Tacoma in 1903, whose last words were, "That was a great game of golf, fellas"?

4.

Who is the only member of the Travelling Wilburys not to have a lead vocal part on the song End of the Line?

5.

Who is the last - that is, the most recent - woman to win the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine?  It was jointly awarded in 2015 for developments in malaria treatment. (surname alone is enough)

6.

Give the five-letter name of the small sheath, often made of plastic or metal, that surrounds each end of a lace or cord, to prevent its fibres from unravelling and make it easier to thread through eyelets or other holes.  The name is ultimately derived from the Latin for ‘needle’.

7.

Treaties concluding which series of conflicts was signed in North Germany on October 24th, 1648?

8.

Released in 1991, on which album did the hidden track Endless, Nameless appear?  It followed the last song listed, Something in the Way, with ten minutes of silence in between.

Sp1

Who painted The Last of England, sometimes known as The Last Sight of England?  It depicts two figures, based on the painter and spouse, sailing away from the white cliffs of Dover on a voyage to Australia.

Sp2

Go to Round 8 questions with answers

ROUND 1 - Paired

1.

Born in North Germany in 1858, which scientist gives his name to the constant that is approximately equal to 6.63 x 10^-34 Joule-seconds and is commonly denoted by the letter h?

(Max) Planck

2.

Which scientist, born in Vienna in 1844, gives his name to the constant that is approximately equal to 1.38 x 10^-23 Joules per Kelvin and is commonly denoted by either k or k_B?

(Ludwig) Boltzmann

3.

Which band holds the record for the most Top Ten singles (18 in all) without ever reaching Number One in the UK?  Their first Top Ten hit was in 1986, but the closest they came to the top spot was with the song Always, which reached Number 2 in 1994.

Bon Jovi

4.

Which artist has had 17 Top Ten singles without a Number One?  This person’s first Top Ten single was in 1986, and this person twice reached Number 2 in the charts: a duet with Luther Vandross in 1992 called The Best Things in Life Are Free; and with That's the Way Love Goes in 1993

Janet Jackson

5.

Moroni is the capital of which country, situated about midway between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn?

Comoros

6.

Malé is the capital of which country, situated a few degrees north of the Equator?

Maldives

7.

Didier Deschamps and Franz Beckenbauer have won the men's football World Cup as both a player and a manager.  Which Brazilian is the only other person to have accomplished this feat?

(Mario) Zagallo

8.

Which footballer, this year, became the fifth person to score in both men's World Cup and European Cup/Champions League?  This player is also one of only three footballers to have scored in European Cup/Champions League finals for two different teams, doing so for Bayern Munich and Juventus.

(Mario) Mandzukic

Sp1

Born in Turin in 1776, which scientist, gives his name to the constant that is approximately equal to 6.02 x 10²³ molecules per mole and is commonly denoted by N_A?

(Amedeo) Avogadro

Sp2

Situated seven degrees north of the equator and on a similar longitude to western New Zealand, Majuro is the capital of which country?

Marshall Islands

ROUND 2 - Hidden theme

1.

Which inland city is the fifth most populous city in the United States?  The largest musical instrument museum in the world was opened there in 2010.

Phoenix, Arizona

2.

Which Noel Coward play, adapted into a film in 1945, takes its title from a line of Shelley’s To a Skylark?

Blithe Spirit

3.

Born in Ulster County, New York in about 1797, who was the first black woman honoured with a bust in the U.S. Capitol? (first name and surname required)

Sojourner Truth

(N.B. Harriet Tubman born Maryland in 1820)

4.

A Monty Python sketch featuring John Cleese as a cinema usherette, selling a sea-bird instead of the traditional ice creams, references which literary work of 1798?

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

5.

In 2017, Emily Wilson became the first woman to publish an English translation of which work?  Other noted translators of this work include Alexander Pope, William Morris and Robert Fagles.

(Homer’s) Odyssey

6.

Which people founded a village at the site now known as L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, around 1000 CE?

Vikings

(if answered ‘Danes’, ‘Norse’ etc, prompt for the more general term that fits theme)

7.

The son of Ares and Aphrodite, which figure in Greek myth is the personification of fear, along with twin brother Deimos.  His Roman equivalent is called Timor or Timorus.

Phobos

8.

A full-scale replica of which brig has been constructed at the Nao Victoria Museum in Punta Arenas, Chile?  The original was built in Woolwich Dockyard and entered service in 1820.

(HMS) Beagle

Sp

Which Italian astronomer mistakenly observed linear structures on Mars, which he called ‘canali’? Mistranslations of this gave rise to speculation that Mars was inhabited by intelligent, canal-digging, beings.

(Giovanni) Schiaparelli (NOT ‘Elsa Schiaparelli’, of course)

Theme: Missions to Mars...

Phoenix (NASA, 2007), Spirit (NASA, 2003), Sojourner (NASA, 1996), Mariner 3,4,6,7,8 (NASA, 1964-71), Mars Odyssey (NASA, 2001), Viking 1 & 2 (NASA, 1975), Phobos 1 & 2 (Soviet, 1988), Beagle 2 (ESA, 2003), Schiaparelli (ESA, 2016)

Go back to Round 2 questions without answers

ROUND 3 - Another Postcode Round

This round concerns UK Postcode Areas whose two-letter codes are abbreviations of other things.

1.

Localities: Bramley, Blubberhouses, Ilkley and Otley

Answer required: unit of length used in astronomy

Light second

(LS=Leeds)

2.

Localities: Branston, Holland Fen, Horncastle and Mablethorpe

Answer required: mathematical term associated with the constant ‘e’

natural logarithm

(i.e. lowercase ‘l’, lowercase ‘n’)

(LN=Lincoln)

3.

Localities: Scarborough, Whitby, Bridlington and Driffield

Answer required: an exclamation

Yo!

(YO=York)

4.

Localities: Bentilee, Blythe Bridge, Barlaston and Biddulph

Answer required: Science-fiction franchise that originated in the mid-1960s

Star Trek

(ST=Stoke-on-Trent)

5.

Localities: Crawshawbooth, Oswaldtwistle, Dunnockshaw and Barnoldswick

Answer required: Caribbean island (via internet code)

Barbados

(BB=Blackburn)

6.

Localities: Bridge of Don, Bridge of Dee, Spittal of Glenmuick and Stonehaven

Answer required: Canadian province

Alberta

(AB=Aberdeen)

7.

Localities: Cowbridge, Tonypandy, Aberdare and Penderyn

Answer required: meaning of a term used in footnotes (a single Latin or English word is enough)

compare / confer

(CF=Cardiff)

8.

Localities: Wallsend, Cramlington, Haltwhistle and Whitley Bay

Answer required: chemical element

Neon

(NE=Newcastle-upon-Tyne)

Sp

Localities: South Cave, North Ferriby, Cottingham and Beverley

Answer required: European country (via internet country code)

Hungary

(HU=Hull)

Go back to Round 3 questions without answers

ROUND 4 - "Daisy, Daisy, Give Me Your Answer Do" Bingo Round

To mark the 60th anniversary of the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey, this round is themed around the letter combination H-A-L.

This combination appears in all the answers, whether at the beginning, the end, or somewhere in the middle, for example ‘halitosis’, ‘neanderthal’ and ‘University Challenge’.

In an attempt to avert rancour over uneven pairings, HAL has requested that this be a ‘lucky dip’ round, so simply pick a number between one and ten.

1.

Caused by the refraction of light by ice crystals in the atmosphere, the luminous ring sometimes observed surrounding the sun or the moon is known by what four-letter term?

Halo

2.

Born in Bournemouth in 1880 and christened Marguerite, which author was prosecuted for obscenity in 1928 as the author of The Well of Loneliness?  (given name and surname required)

Radclyffe Hall

3.

Pathfinders: the Golden Age of Arabic Science, and Paradox: The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics are works by which scientist and broadcaster, born in 1962 in Baghdad?

(Jim) Al-Khalili

4.

Helen Huntingdon, most commonly known under her alias ‘Helen Graham’ is the main female character of which novel, first published in 1848 under a pseudonym?

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

5.

What is the correct anatomical name for bones of the fingers or toes?

phalanges

(accept ‘phalanx’, the singular form)

6.

Scene 32 of the Bayeux Tapestry shows people pointing at the sky and bears the Latin inscription ‘isti mirant stella’.  To what specific object does the word ‘stella’ refer here?

(translates as ‘they marvel at the star’)

7.

"All things are from water and all things are resolved into water."  These words are attributed to which pre-Socratic philosopher, born in Miletus around 625 B.C.?

8.

Which Indo-European language is the most-spoken language of Sri Lanka?

9.

Meaning a time of freedom from care, for example the 1970s, what term is derived from the belief that during the nesting period of kingfishers around the winter solstice, the sea always remained calm?

10.

The only words uttered by the title character of which narrative poem of 1842 are: "I am half sick of shadows", and "the curse is come upon me"?

Go back to Round 4 questions without answers

ROUND 5 - Hidden theme

1.

What name was given to a film adaptation of Roger Zelazny’s novel Lord of Light that was to be filmed in Iran in 1979-80?  While it was never actually produced, its production gave cover to other events that were dramatised as an Oscar-winning film under the same name.

Argo

2.

About 200km east of Jamaica, what is the most populous island in the Caribbean.  Roughly in the middle is Pico Duarte, the highest point in the region.

Hispaniola

3.

Which gem is, in the Sherlock Holmes story, hidden inside one of six plaster busts of Napoleon?

The Black Pearl of the Borgias

4.

Which family of cephalopods are the only ones to have an external shell?  Their name derives ultimately from the Greek for ‘sailor’.

Nautilus

5.

Only two Oxford colleges are named after Scottish people: Somerville, after polymath and scientist Mary Somerville, is one.  What is the other?

Balliol College

(after John de Balliol)

6.

Which actress played the young Jean Grey in the 2016 film X-Men: Apocalypse, but is probably best known for her work on a well-known fantasy TV series?  (first name and surname required)

Sophie Turner

7.

The Kate Bush song The Sensual World was, in 2011, re-recorded as Flower of the Mountain, using only words spoken in a soliloquy by a character from which novel?

Ulysses

(by James Joyce)

8.

In CSI: Miami, which character is played by David Caruso?  (surname alone is enough)

(Horatio) Caine

Sp1

Which indigenous American people fought an eponymous war against the New England colonies between 1636 and 1638?

Pequot

(accept Pequod)

Sp2

Which Premier League club had the most players representing it amongst the four semi-finalists from this year’s FIFA men’s World Cup?

Tottenham Hotspur

Theme: The names of fictional ships...

 - Black Pearl (Pirates of the Caribbean); Hispaniola (Treasure Island); Argo (Jason and the Argonauts); HMS Ulysses (HMS Ulysses by Alistair MacLean); USS Caine (The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk); Nautilus (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea); HMS Sophie (Master and Commander, by Patrick O’Brian); Pequod (Moby Dick) and the Balliol College (Flash for Freedom, by George MacDonald Fraser)

Go back to Round 5 questions without answers

ROUND 6 - 'Meet the Illuminati'

To celebrate WithQuiz’s devotion to the realm of facts and logical consistency, all these questions have answers that relate to conspiracy theories

1.

The year the Romans captured Caratacus; the WW2 ‘Mustang’ fighter aircraft; Washington DC and Puerto Rico, for example; the chemical element antimony.  What two-digit number links all of these?

51

(fifty-one)

2.

What surname links: a George Bernard Shaw play about prostitution; the author of All The King’s Men; the creator of Coronation Street, and the United States Chief Justice during most of the 1960s?

Warren

(Mrs Warren's Profession; Robert Penn, 1905-89; Tony, 1936-2016; Earl 1891-1974, head of the commission that investigated the Kennedy Assassination)

3.

(A two-word answer is required here)  The first word is the adjective E M  Forster applied to fictional characters that are not ‘capable of surprising in a convincing way’. The second word precedes ‘has not anything to show more fair’ in a poem by Wordsworth.

flat earth

4.

The ‘Phantom Time Hypothesis’ states that the papacy and leading secular rulers fabricated the history of the years 614 to 911 (yes, really).  This resulted in which Holy Roman Emperor being on the throne in the significant year A.D. 1000?  Only the regnal name is required, which he shares with the head of the House of Habsburg from 1922 to 2011, and the Chancellor of the German Empire from 1871 to 1890?

Otto

(the third)

5.

Which small city has a name that is an anagram of a word that could be described as: ‘Sonia and George', the latter being the author of Keep the Aspidistra Flying?  The city in question is located midway between Phoenix, Arizona and Dallas, Texas.

Roswell

(i.e. ‘Orwells’)

6.

Which journalist and TV presenter wrote the 2009 work, Voodoo Histories: the role of Conspiracy Theory in Modern History?  In 1975, he was on the Manchester team on University Challenge, and was heard to give answers such as "Trotsky", "Marx" and "Che Guevara".

(David) Aaronovitch

7.

What two-word term is often expressed as 'entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity'?  It comprises the name of a village in a Surrey, followed by a cutting instrument.

Occam’s Razor

8.

‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence’; this aphorism is often named after which prominent U.S astronomer, who died in 1996?

(Carl) Sagan

Sp

Making allowance for minor variations in spelling, the two-word name of what US location may be expressed as: ‘Middle English dream poem translated by Simon Armitage’ and ‘first word in the name of the tram stop between Anchorage, Broadway and MediaCityUK’?

Pearl Harbor

(i.e. ‘the advance knowledge’ theory)

Go back to Round 6 questions without answers

ROUND 7 - 'Horror with a Festive Twist'

Rachael says she is "already very much in the Christmas spirit"and has combined themes of next week’s Halloween with those of her favourite holiday period

1.

Who wrote the seasonal supernatural novels The Chimes, The Haunted Man and The Battle Of Life?

(Charles) Dickens

2.

Which prominent writer of ghost stories published Ghost Stories of an Antiquary in 1904, a collection of spooky tales he had composed to tell to friends at Christmas?

M R James

(prompt on ‘James’; NOT ‘Henry James’ or ‘Jesse James’, of course)

3.

In which film of 1984 does Billy receive a cute creature called a Mogwai as a Christmas present?  A failure to follow his new pet's strict dietary and care requirements lead to monstrous trouble.

Gremlins

4.

Which 1988 comedy stars Bill Murray as a cynical television executive who is visited by three ghosts who are sent to teach him the error of his ways?

Scrooged

5.

Which anthology series, written by and starring Steve Pemberton and Rhys Shearsmith, included the very dark seasonal episode The Devil of Christmas as part of its third series in 2016?

Inside Number 9

6.

Often dark and disturbing, which futuristic drama anthology series by Charlie Brooker included the bleak 2014 Christmas special White Christmas?

Black Mirror

7.

Which band recorded the Monster's Holiday, a festive sequel to their much-loved Halloween classic Monster Mash?

Bobby 'Boris' Picket

(and the Crypt-Kickers)

(accept slight variations, at the discretion of QM)

8.

First recorded by Elmo & Patsy in 1979, which novelty Christmas song, has become something of a festive favourite on radio stations in recent years?  It concerns the mysterious death of an old lady on Christmas Eve which bears all the hallmarks of a hit-and-run involving Santa's sleigh.

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

(accept similar, at the discretion of QM)

Go back to Round 7 questions without answers

ROUND 8 - A Round themed around endings and last things

1.

Whose are the last spoken words in Homer’s Iliad?  They call for wood for a funeral pyre.

Priam

2.

Which book, released in 2007 and the last in a decade-long series, concludes with the words, "All was well"?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

3.

Born in Tacoma in 1903, whose last words were, "That was a great game of golf, fellas"?

Bing Crosby

4.

Who is the only member of the Travelling Wilburys not to have a lead vocal part on the song End of the Line?

Bob Dylan

5.

Who is the last - that is, the most recent - woman to win the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine?  It was jointly awarded in 2015 for developments in malaria treatment. (surname alone is enough)

Tu ('Youyou')

6.

Give the five-letter name of the small sheath, often made of plastic or metal, that surrounds each end of a lace or cord, to prevent its fibres from unravelling and make it easier to thread through eyelets or other holes.  The name is ultimately derived from the Latin for ‘needle’.

Aglet

7.

Treaties concluding which series of conflicts was signed in North Germany on October 24th, 1648?

Thirty Years War

8.

Released in 1991, on which album did the hidden track Endless, Nameless appear?  It followed the last song listed, Something in the Way, with ten minutes of silence in between.

Sp1

Who painted The Last of England, sometimes known as The Last Sight of England?  It depicts two figures, based on the painter and spouse, sailing away from the white cliffs of Dover on a voyage to Australia.

Ford Madox Brown

(NOT Ford Madox Ford, of course)

Sp2

(Eugene / Gene) Cernan

(Apollo 17 astronaut)

Go back to Round 8 questions without answers