ANSWERS

1 B. Mr MARCH is based on Louisa’s own father Amos Bronson Alcott, an educator and preacher. It’s a rose-tinted portrait, as he never managed to earn a living.

2) True. JO IS based on Louisa herself. Meg is based on her sister Anna, who fell in love with husband John while starring in a play with him. Beth is based on Lizzie, who died from scarlet fever aged 23. Amy is based on May (Amy is an anagram), an artist who lived in europe. Alcott was a paid companion and governess, like Jo.

3. A, B and C. The 1933 film adaptation starred Katharine hepburn as Jo. The 1949 version had June Allyson as Jo (but elizabeth Taylor played Amy). The Oscarnominated 1994 version starred Winona ryder as Jo. In the new BBC Christmas version, Jo is played by Maya hawke, Uma Thurman and ethan hawke’s daughter.

4) B. PICKLED limes were a fashionable treat for 19th-century schoolgirls. Amy’s teacher has forbidden them and she is forced to throw her stash out the window.

5) C. MRS March asks the girls to care for the hummel family as the baby is ill. Meg, Jo and Amy find excuses, so Beth goes alone. She recovers from scarlet fever, but her health is tragically compromised.

6) C. ALCOTT, who never married, wanted Jo to stay unmarried. But as she was writing Good Wives (the second half of Little Women), fans clamoured for Jo to marry Laurie. Alcott wrote, ‘Girls ask who the women marry, as if that was the only aim and end of a woman’s life. I won’t marry Jo to Laurie to please anyone.’ her solution was to introduce Jo to Professor Bhaer when she moves to New York. THE new three-part version of Little Women starts on BBC1 on Boxing Day