ANNIVERSARIES

THE year 2020 was another bumper year for literary anniversaries . . .

1. Which great english poet was honoured for his 250th birthday last year? during his seven years as Poet Laureate, this man wrote no poetry at all.

2. Who was the youngest of three rampantly over-achieving sisters — born in 1820? she was just 29 when she died.

3. And which other writer, who wrote only one novel, was born during the same year in great Yarmouth? hers was the first ever english novel to be written from the perspective of a non-human animal.

4. Which english writer died 150 years ago (1870) aged 58, and left £93,000 in his will? he i s buried i n Poets’ corner in Westminster Abbey.

5. Which legendary english novel was first published in 1920? Whether you have read it or not, the image in your mind whenever it’s mentioned is of oliver reed and Alan Bates wrestling naked on a hearth-rug ( pictured).

6. how old would the science fiction writers isaac Asimov, ray Bradbury and Frank herbert all have been in 2020?

7. Which german-dutch diarist died 75 years ago, in 1945? she too only wrote one

book, book and her father made sure it was published in 1947.

8. Which novelist, who wrote all his six novels in Weybridge, surrey, died half a century ago in 1970? he was nominated for the nobel Prize in Literature on 16 separate occasions, but never won.

9. Which much-loved fictional character would have been 40 on July 31 last year?

10. Last year marked 25 years since which grumpy old American writer died? her new Year’s eve toast ran as follows: ‘to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which i do battle — may they never give me peace.’