The Saga Magazine May Pub Quiz

Italian cities, children's television and musical connections are just some of our pub quiz teasers this month.

Illustration of question marks and lightbulb

Image credit: GettyImages/master1305

By Marcus Berkmann | Published - 13 May 2025

Answer these 20 questions designed to test your general knowledge and see how many you can get right. Answers at the end.

Questions

Question 1

Which everyday item will normally contain an ISBN?

Question 2

In 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra lost the plot and murdered ten members of the royal family of which country?

Question 3

Boots, Raleigh Bicycles, Brough Motorcycles, department store Jessop & Son and sci-fi publisher Angry Robot were founded in which Midlands town?

Question 4

Which popular children’s writer, born Theodor Geisel, coined the words "flunnel", "nizzard", "sneedle", "bippo-no-bungus" and, perhaps most lastingly, "nerd"?

Question 5

In April and May 2005, which theatrical knight played an author and conman called Mel Hutchwright in Coronation Street, thus fulfilling a long-held ambition?

Question 6

In London in 1873, 1,150 died. In Glasgow in 1909, about 1,000 died. In London in 1952, more than 3,000 died. In New York in 1953, around 200 died. In London in 1956, another 1,000 died. What killed them?

Question 7

Which children’s toy or plaything was named after the 26th president of the USA?

Question 8

In which country is the most northerly point of mainland Africa?

Question 9

To a zoologist, what part of a bird is a rostrum?

Question 10

Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues; Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody; David Bowie’s Space Oddity; The Beatles’ A Day in the Life; The Logical Song by Supertramp; and Pyjamarama by Roxy Music. What do these songs have in common?

Question 11

If a diver suffers from the bends, what gas has been released into his bloodstream?

Illustration of a hand pointing to a question mark — Image credit: GettyImages/Alona Horkova

Question 12

Which Italian city gives its name to types of ham and cheese?

Question 13

What was the name of Princes William and Harry’s nanny whom William invited to an Eton parents’ evening in 1997?

Question 14

Whose boyfriend is American football player Travis Kelce?

Question 15

Which Bombay-born British author and poet, while living in Vermont in the 1890s, invented snow golf? (It’s customarily played with red or orange balls.)

Question 16

What type of recreational game or pastime, popular with children and adults, derives its name from the tool that was originally used to create it?

Question 17

In the Teletubbies, what colour was Tinky-Winky?

Question 18

"Thus with a kiss I die" are the last words of which Shakespeare character?

Question 19

In Doctor Who, who originally came from the planet Skaro?

Question 20

Gargamel, the Evil Wizard, is the sworn enemy of which small blue people who wear Phrygian caps and live in mushrooms?

Answers

1 A book, 2 Nepal, 3 Nottingham, 4 Dr Seuss, 5 Sir Ian McKellen, 6 Smogs, 7 The teddy bear (after Theodore Roosevelt), 8 Tunisia, 9 The beak or snout, 10 No mention of the title in the song, 11 Nitrogen, 12 Parma, 13 Tiggy Legge-Bourke, 14 Taylor Swift, 15 Rudyard Kipling, 16 Jigsaw, 17 Purple, 18 Romeo, 19 The Daleks, 20 The Smurfs