40. The Drury Lane Theatre, on 28th September 1745, saw the first recorded public performance of which now very familiar piece of music?
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1. Which English singer-songwriter, who died tragically young in 1974, released only three albums during his lifetime, Five Leaves Left, Bryter Later and Pink Moon, largely ignored at the time but all now acknowledged as classics?
2. ‘A Cream Cracker Under the Settee’ was the title of the last of Alan Bennett’s acclaimed 1988 series of television monologues, Talking Heads. Which actress performed it?
3. ‘Aqua fortis’, the Latin for ‘strong water’, was a name used archaically for which acid?
4. What common process is known to botanists as ‘positive geotropism’?
5. The viral disease epidemic parotitis, most commonly afflicting children between the ages of 5 and 15, is commonly known by what name?
6. What name is given to the long sleeveless outer vestment worn by priests, and normally distinguished by the liturgical colour appropriate to the mass being celebrated?
7. The Rev. Canon Chasuble D.D. is a vicar in which of Oscar Wilde’s comedies?
8. Which naturalist and physician was responsible for giving us our biological name Homo sapiens?
9. Alphabetically, which is the last book of the Old Testament?
10. Which 14th century manuscript, consisting of more than fifty poems including some attributed to a bard who lived as early as the 6th century, inspired the title of an LP by the rock band Deep Purple?
11. Claire Tomalin, whose biography of Charles Dickens was published in 2011, is also the author of an acclaimed biography of Dickens’ mistress, published twenty years earlier with the title The Invisible Woman. What was that mistress’s name?
12. Patrick Troughton, Richard Greene, Michael Praed and Jonas Armstrong have all appeared in television dramas playing which medieval figure?
13. Which London railway terminus is depicted in W. P. Frith’s painting of 1862, entitled The Railway Station?
14. What term is used in archaeology to refer to the physical material – such as soil or sediment – in which cultural artefacts or fossils are embedded?
15. The organisation CSETI, founded in the USA in 1990 by Steven M. Greer, is dedicated to the furtherance of human understanding of what phenomenon?
16. In 1985, the zoologist Dian Fossey was murdered while making a study of mountain gorillas – in which African country?
17. Which European capital city got its ancient name from the Latin word for mud?
18. ‘The book of my enemy has been remaindered / And I am pleased. / In vast quantities it has been remaindered / Like a van-load of counterfeit that has been seized’. These are the opening lines of the title poem of which writer’s book of collected verse?
19. In physics, what is the anti-particle to the electron called?
20. In the 17th century, Nicholas Lanier became the first person to hold what post at the English royal court?
21. Certain insects have ‘stridulatory organs’. Can you explain what these are?
22. In Greek legend, what did the craftsman Epeius fashion from timbers cut from the slopes of Mount Ida?
23. ‘A Satyr Against Reason and Mankind’ is a poem by which courtier of Charles II, who has been portrayed on film by Johnny Depp, and whose debauched lifestyle earned him the reputation of ‘the wickedest man in England’?
24. When the Republic of China was declared in 1912, who was named its first provisional President?
25. In which city in France was Joan of Arc burned at the stake in 1431?
26. In the Beatles’ 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night, which Irish-born actor, by then already familiar from television, was cast as the grandfather?
27. The area known as The Hamptons, in Suffolk County, an exclusive summer retreat for wealthy Americans, is at the eastern end of which island?
28. From Doon with Death, first published in 1964, was the first novel of which British crime writer?
29. Which year of the 20th century saw the start of the First Arab-Israeli War, the publication of the Kinsey report into Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi?
30. Which common three-letter word was originally an abbreviation of a two-word Latin phrase meaning ‘excitable crowd’, a meaning which it often retains?
31. According to tradition, who was shot dead at Mann’s saloon in August 1876, holding, in a poker game, two eights and two aces, the combination of cards becoming known as ‘the dead man’s hand’?
32. Which branch of mathematics was developed by John Von Neumann with later collaboration by Oskar Morgenstern?
33. Which director-general of the BBC introduced on air the radio broadcast of the abdication speech made by Edward VIII on 11th December 1936?
34. Which district of New York City is situated north of 96th Street in Manhattan?
35. Which transition metal, which shares its name with a major London theatre, has atomic number 46 and atomic mass of 106.4?
36. Which force created to preserve public order in London, originally numbering only six men, was founded by Henry Fielding in the 1740s, and lasted until being finally disbanded in the 1830s?
37. At 636 metres, which is the highest point in the Peak District?
38. The composer Richard Rodgers had two astronomically successful partnerships in his career. Can you name the two lyricists with which he scored his major hits?
39. What is the name of the man-eating water monster who plagues the hall of King Hrothgar
