2nd April 2021 In Books By Penelope Wallace

Quiz for the holidays

It’s Good Friday, and perhaps I should give you something spiritual – but you have many other sources for that.

So –

I love literary quizzes.

They come in many topics, but I haven’t seen this one done before. We all know that Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy are the March sisters, and that Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia are the Bennets – but do you know the shared (birth/maiden) surname of these fictional families?

(In some cases one or more sib may be very much more famous than the others.)

  1. Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen?
  2. Elinor, Marianne and Margaret?
  3. Vera, Nikolai, Natasha and Petya?
  4. Hen, Daphne, Joe, Maggie, Horace, the Twins and the Bairn?
  5. Petunia and Lily? (Maiden surname!)
  6. Gerald, Peter and Mary? (This is quite a hard one. Their respective spouses are Helen, Harriet and Charles)
  7. Nancy (born Ruth) and Peggy?
  8. Pearl, Pimpernel, Pervinca and Peregrin (known as Pippin)?
  9. Arun, Savita, Varun and Lata? (Also possibly quite hard. There was a recent TV miniseries of this very long but excellent book.)
  10. Fuchsia and Titus?

and finally…

  1. Rommi and Eyanda?

Bear in mind… only certain types of books are likely to feature siblings, and only certain cultures have surnames.

Answers later. Any further question examples can be added to the comments! You can say if you scored top marks, but please don’t give away answers!

Happy Easter.

Love from the PPI Blogger

PS You may remember that a little while ago I wrote to the new Director General of the BBC, Richard Sharp : https://www.penelopewallace.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=22902&action=edit

I’ve now received an answer – not, sadly, from him, but from the BBC Audience Services Team:

“Dear Penelope Wallace, Thanks for contacting us. We appreciate all feedback we receive. This is to let you know that we have read your letter and registered your feedback on our daily Audience Log. This is a daily report of audience feedback that’s circulated throughout the BBC and the BBC Executive Board. Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.”

Hmm…

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5 Comments

  • Matthew Perry

    2nd April 2021 at 6:38 pm Reply

    Well, I only managed two of these (and I did not know one of the ones you said everyone would know). There were a lot of female names, perhaps I do not read the right books.

  • Judith Leader

    3rd April 2021 at 1:13 am Reply

    My ignorance is appalling I didn’t know any of the answers.

  • Malachi Malagowther

    3rd April 2021 at 9:59 am Reply

    My lack of knowledge of Russian literature has let me down but growing up in Scotland can be useful at times. Having said that, I recognised some of the characters such as Lily and Petunia but couldn’t remember their maiden names. It is the same with Roberta (Bobbie), Peter and Phyllis but who knows if they even had a surname? Possibly the postman but their father is just called “Father”.

  • Stephen Hall

    13th April 2021 at 2:48 pm Reply

    Nice, we love a quiz. I know five (including the family from the long excellent book), plus one halfling guess and another where I know the (Russian) book but would have to look it up.

  • Penelope Wallace

    16th April 2021 at 3:27 pm Reply

    Just in time, Stephen; I’m about to post the answers…

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