Pesto, a staple sauce of Italian cooking, combines pine-kernels, parmesan cheese and olive oil with which herb?
2. In the Caribbean, what is a ‘duppy’?
3. Barbara Millicent Roberts is the full name of which iconic figure of the 20th century, first introduced to the public by Ruth Handler in 1959 at the New York Toy Fair?
4. On the label of a bottle of wine, the letters ‘DOCG’ are an indication that it has been granted a stamp of particular quality. In which country will it have been produced?
5. In the world of antiques, the names of William Cookworthy, Samuel Gilbody and Benjamin Lund are associated with high-quality 18th century examples in what field of craftsmanship?
6. ‘Lackland’ and ‘Softsword’ are among the nicknames given to which English King, the father of Henry III?
7. In the so-called ‘Easter Rising’ of 1916, which building in Dublin’s Sackville Street was occupied and used as a headquarters by Irish nationalists, until they abandoned it when it caught fire as a result of being shelled by the British?
8. Which of the territories of Canada has the city of Yellowknife as its capital?
9. Ada, Countess of Lovelace, best known for having written the first description of Charles Babbage’s mechanical computer, was the daughter of which English poet?
10. Sabrina, The Apartment and Some Like It Hot are among the films of which multiple-Oscar winning director who died in 2002?
11. Which type of wheat, with a name derived from the Latin for ‘hard’, is cultivated mainly to make pasta, couscous and macaroni?
12. Which fictional detective made his final appearance in a novel called Curtain, published in 1975 – and was the first fictional character ever to be honoured with an obituary on the front page of the New York Times?
13. Which Swiss sculptor, born in 1901, is best known for his works in bronze depicting rough-textured free-standing human figures with extremely thin and elongated limbs?
14. Which island group in the Indian Ocean, a popular tourist destination, has the city of Victoria as its capital?
15. Now considered a classic of cookery writing, the 1984 book An Omelette and a Glass of Wine is a collection of articles by which food writer?
16. Which British rock group, formed in the late 1960s, was named after an agriculturalist of the 18th century whose principal work was entitled Horse-Hoeing Husbandry?
17. Which Dublin-born actor played the role of Philip E. Marlow in Dennis Potter’s television serial The Singing Detective?
18. Which organisation had its origins in Pulaski, Tennessee, founded there by Confederate Army veterans in the late 1860s?
19. Vanessa and Jesse, the children of Lorna Luft, are the grandchildren of which singer and actress who died in 1969?
20. In 1911, the American politician, explorer and archaeologist Hiram Bingham discovered which lost Inca city, on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru?
21. Which spice is derived from the plant whose Latin name is Crocus sativus?
22. According to the prison warder Mr Mackay in the classic TV comedy series Porridge, ‘In this prison there are only two rules. One is, you do not write on the walls.’ What is the other?
23. Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea are four novels written by Lawrence Durrell in the 1950s, which are known by what collective title?
24. Ultra-violet radiation in sunlight helps convert ergosterol, a substance present in the skin, into a form of which vitamin?
25. Which of the American ‘Ivy League’ universities has its campus in the city of New Haven, Connecticut?
26. What name is given to the gold-coloured alloy of copper, zinc and sometimes tin, which is used to decorate furniture and ornaments?
27. By what name do we know the undesirable condition known medically as Pityriasis capitis?
28. Can you name the music-hall star born Matilda Alice Victoria Wood in 1870, who first appeared as Bella Delmere before taking the stage name by which she is best known?
29. Having formulated a law for the polarisation of light, which is named after him, the 19th century Scottish physicist David Brewster also invented a scientific instrument that became popular as a child’s toy. What was it?
30. The 1930s children’s books Peter Duck and Pigeon Post are sequels, featuring the same characters, to which highly successful novel?
31. In chemistry, what name is given to different forms of the same substance which may have different properties – such as carbon in the forms of diamond and graphite?
32. Which much-recorded country song, composed by Kris Kristofferson, has a refrain which begins with the words ‘Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose’?
33. Which highly respected broadcaster, born in 1933, came to prominence as one of the regulars on television’s Late Night Line-Up in the 1960s, and later presented the ethical investigative series Heart of the Matter for many years?
34. In which Hindu text, part of the Mahabharata, does Lord Krishna instruct Prince Arjuna on the importance of absolute devotion?
35. The novel sequence entitled Gargantua and Pantagruel, famously long and rambling and bawdy, is the work of which French Renaissance medic and satirist?
36. Which Scottish Premier League football club plays its home games at Tynecastle?
37. In the animal kingdom, the family Leporidae consists of which common British mammals?
38. What word is used in physics to describe an ionised gas produced at extremely high temperatures and, in biology, to the liquid component of the blood?
39. A psychopathic killer named Michael Myers is the central villain of a celebrated horror movie of 1978, and its series of sequels. Can you name that original movie?
40. Famously celebrated in music, Fingal’s Cave is a rock formation to be found on which uninhabited Hebridean island?
