IoS PG Wodehouse quiz: You could just ask Jeeves!

'Downton Abbey' may have gone, but fear not! PG Wodehouse is back. As the BBC's 'Blandings' hits our screens next Sunday, Matthew Bell tests your knowledge of this saga of toffs at play (answers below)

P G Wodehouse, creator of the characters Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves (Getty Images)

1. Which member of the Royal Family is patron of the PG Wodehouse Society?

a) The Queen

b) Prince Charles

c) The Duke of Kent

d) Princess Michael of Kent

2. Which weekly magazine turned down a story by PG Wodehouse early in his career, and was the model for Milady's Boudoir?

a) Country Life

b) The Lady

c) The Spectator

d) The New Statesman

3. What do the initials PG stand for?

a) Peter Graham

b) Pelham Grenville

c) Pinky Granchester

d) Psimon Glossop

4. By what nickname was Wodehouse commonly known to his friends?

a) Fruity

b) Beefy

c) Bunty

d) Plum

5. How many Wodehouse novels were published during his lifetime?

a) 12

b) 69

c) 92

d) 109

6. Who, in a letter to The Daily Telegragh in 1941, wrote of Wodehouse: "If England has any dignity left in the way of literature, she will forget forever the pitiful antics of English literature's performing flea"?

a) George Orwell

b) Sean O'Casey

c) William Rees-Mogg

d) Isaiah Berlin

7. How did Wodehouse respond?

a) He didn't write another story for a year

b) He left Britain

c) He compiled a book of letters called Performing Flea

d) He never bought The Daily Telegraph again.

8. When was Wodehouse awarded a knighthood?

a) On his 50th birthday

b) 45 days before he died

c) Posthumously

d) He never was

9. Who said: "One of my (few) proud boasts is that I once spent a day interviewing PG Wodehouse at his home in America. He was exactly as I expected: a lovely modest man. He could have walked out of one of his own novels. It's dangerous to use the word genius to describe a writer, but I'll risk it with him."

a) Evelyn Waugh

b) Martha Gellhorn

c) Michael Parkinson

d) John Humphrys

10. When war broke out in 1939, Wodehouse did what?

a) Signed up with the Air Force

b) Fled to America

c) Joined the British Union of Fascists

d) Stayed at home in Le Touquet

Jeeves and Wooster

1. Bertie Wooster lives where?

a) Kensington

b) Chelsea

c) Mayfair

d) Worth Matravers

2. What is Jeeves's Christian name?

a) Roger

b) Reginald

c) Raymond

d) Randolph

3. Which of the following has not played the part of Bertie Wooster?

a) Dominic West

b) David Niven

c) Terry Thomas

d) Jonathan Cecil

4. Which of the following has not played the part of Jeeves?

a) Stephen Fry

b) Martin Jarvis

c) Arthur Treacher

d) Gyles Brandreth

5. In The Code of the Woosters, what or who does Aunt Dahlia order Bertie to sneer at?

a) A cow-creamer

b) Sir Roderick Spode

c) A cucumber

d) G KChesterton

6. What is the name of Aunt Dahlia's prized French chef?

a) Antoine

b) Anatole

c) Anastasio

d) Anton

7. Who is a newt-fancier?

a) Honoria Glossop

b) Boko Fittleworth

c) Stiffy Stiffham

d) Gussie Fink-Nottle

8. What are the three vital ingredients of Jeeves's hangover pick-me-up?

a) Gin, sherry and Worcestershire sauce

b) Tomato juice, celery and raw egg

c) Worcestershire sauce, raw egg and pepper

d) Milk, honey and raw egg

9. What is the name of Bertie Wooster's London club?

a) Bores

b) Pratts

c) Bratts

d) Drones

10. PG Wodehouse was thought to have had Nazi sympathies, but Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (Blackshirts) were parodied with the character of Sir Roderick Spode. What garments do Spode and his supporters wear?

a) Black socks

b) Black spats

c) Black berets

d) Black shorts

The names

Match the first names to the surnames

a) Stilton

b) Catsmeat

c) Gussie

d) Oofy

e) Kipper

f) Beefy

g) Pongo

h) Sippy

i) Bingo

j) Gwendolen

1) Fink-Nottle

2) Sipperley

3) Herring

4) Moon

5) Potter-Purbright

6) Bingham

7) Prosser

8) Cheesewright

9) Little

10) Twistleton

The aunts

Bertie Wooster lives in fear of his aunts, who call to each other "like mastodons bellowing across a primordial swamp". One, Aunt Dahlia, is supposedly good; the other, Agatha, is bad, though sometimes it's hard to tell them apart. Can you identify which is being referred to in the following lines?

a) I turned to Aunt ------, whose demeanour was now rather like that of one who, picking daisies on the railway, has just caught the down express in the small of the back.

b) My Aunt -----has a carrying voice. If all other sources of income failed, she could make a good living calling the cattle home across the Sands of Dee.

c) 'The modern young man,' said Aunt -----, 'is a congenital idiot and wants a nurse to lead him by the hand and some strong attendant to kick him regularly at intervals of a quarter of an hour.'

d) It isn't often that Aunt -----, lets her angry passions rise, but when she does, strong men climb trees and pull them up after them.

e) Even at normal times Aunt -----'s map tended a little towards the crushed strawberry. But never had I seen it take on so pronounced a richness as now. She looked like a tomato struggling for self-expression.

f) Aunt ------, who eats broken bottles and wears barbed wire next to the skin.

g) There came from without the hoof-beats of a galloping relative and Aunt ------ whizzed in.

h) My Aunt -------, is tall and thin and looks rather like a vulture in the Gobi Desert.

i) Aunt ------- is short and solid, like a scrum half in the game of Rugby football.

j) Aunt -------- is cold and haughty, though presumably unbending a bit when conducting human sacrifices at the time of the full moon, as she is widely rumoured to do, and her attitude towards me has always been that of an austere governess, causing me to feel as if I were six years old and she had just caught me stealing jam from the jam cupboard.

The quotes

What words are missing from the following lines?

1. "I hadn't the heart to touch my breakfast. I told Jeeves to ------ it himself."

a) Tell

b) Eat

c) Drink

d) Touch

2. "At this moment, the -------, which had hitherto not spoken, said "Psst!"'

a) Newt

b) Pumpkin

c) Wardrobe

d) Laurel bush

3. "Whenever I get that sad, depressed feeling, I go out and ------ a policeman."

a) Rob

b) Bop

c) Bash

d) Kill

4. "The drowsy stillness of the afternoon was shattered by what sounded to his strained senses like --------- falling on a sheet of tin."

a) a sow

b) Gussy Fink-Nottle

c) a flower pot

d) G K Chesterton

5. "There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself, 'Do -------- matter?'" (To which Jeeves replies "The mood will pass, sir.")

a) Women

b) Trousers

c) Pumpkins

d) Spats

6. "The voice of Love seemed to call to me, but it was --------."

a) Roderick Spode saying "ho!"

b) a faint gargling from Honoria Glossop

c) my Aunt Agatha

d) a wrong number

7. "It is no use telling me there are bad aunts and good aunts. At the core, they are all alike. Sooner or later, out pops --------."

a) the hunting horn

b) the iron claw

c) the cloven hoof

d) the inner Agatha

8. "A sort of gulpy, gurgly, plobby, squishy, wofflesome sound, like a thousand eager men ------- in a foreign restaurant."

a) talking

b) slurping

c) eating oysters

d) drinking soup

9. "She looked as if she had been ------ and had forgotten to say 'when'."

a) served breakfast

b) beaten up

c) poured into her clothes

d) given a love potion

10. In which novel does the following dialogue take place?

"What ho!" I said.

"What ho!" said Motty.

"What ho! What ho!"

"What ho! What ho! What ho!"

After that it seemed rather difficult to go on with the conversation.

a) Carry on, Jeeves!

b) My man Jeeves

c) Eggs Beans and Crumpets

d) Uncle Fred in the Springtime

Answers

General Knowledge

1C, 2B, 3B, 4D, 5B, 6B, 7C, 8B, 9D, 10D

Jeeves and Wooster

1C, 2B, 3A, 4D, 5A, 6B, 7D, 8C, 9D, 10D

Match the first names to the surnames

A8 Stilton Cheesewright; B5 Catsmeat Potter-Purbright; C1 Gussie Fink-Nottle; D7 Oofy Prosser; E3 Kipper Herring; F6 Beefy Bingham; G10 Pongo Twistleton; H2 Sippy Sipperley; I9 Bingo Little; J4 Gwendolen Moon

The Aunts

a) Agatha; b) Dahlia; c) Dahlia; d) Dahlia; e) Dahlia; f) Agatha; g) Dahlia; h) Agatha; i) Dahlia; j) Agatha

The quotes

1C, 2D, 3D, 4D, 5B, 6D, 7C, 8D, 9C, 10B