British Council Arts
 British Council Arts
 British Council Arts
 
 enCompassCulture.com
 enCompassCulture.com
 enCompassCulture.com
Start About enCompass Reader in Residence Reading groups Discuss Chat Booklists Author index Help
 *
 *
 *
 Click here to start finding books for adults.
 Click here to start finding books for ages 12-18.
 Click here to start finding books for children.
Click one of the above options to start searching...
 Perform search.
 *
Books Rest of site
 *
READER IN RESIDENCE
 Link to Book of the Month
Link to Newsletters
 Link to author interviews
 * JOIN OUR MAILING LIST  *

Let us inform you of events, news and new features on this site.

Read more

 

 * TALK AMONGST YOURSELVES  *

Why not join in the book discussions on our webboard?

Read more

 

 *

GARDENS

Test your knowledge of books set in, or inspired by, gardens. All the books are listed on the EnCompass database, so you could do a bit of clever searching to find the answers!

 

 Question 1.
In which classic children's book by Philippa Pearce does a small boy discover a garden outside the back door when the clock strikes thirteen - only for everyone to tell him it doesn't exist?

Jim's Midnight Garden

Tim's Midnight Garden

Tom's Midnight Garden

Dom's Midnight Garden

 *
 Question 2.
Which Carol Shields novel features a man who develops an obsession with hedges?

The Stone Diaries

Larry's Party

Unless

Various Miracles

 *
 Question 3.
Who wrote the novel Summertime, a six-month snapshot of the life of Venetia Summers and the three children she is raising alone, where much of the action revolves around the domestic tedium of food, school runs - and gardening?

Raffaella Barker

Jenny Colgan

Jane Green

Sophie Kinsella

 *
 Question 4.
In 2002 Gretchen Gerzina published a biography of which well-loved writer, creator of The Secret Garden?

Alexander McCall Smith

Francis Hodgson Burnett

George Bernard Shaw

Carol Ann Duffy

 *
 Question 5.
In which novel by Lee Jackson does a sinister figure stalk the gas-lit groves of Cremorne Gardens on the Thames, armed only with a pair of very sharp scissors?

A Metropolitan Murder

The Welfare of the Dead

The Last Pleasure Garden

London Dust

 *
 Question 6.
Which Caribbean writer gathers all that she loves about gardening in a book simply entitled The Garden, also examining the implications of the English formal garden in colonised countries?

Jamaica Kincaid

Jean Binta Breeze

Grace Nichols

Olive Senior

 *
 Question 7.
In which Erica James novel does Helen throw herself into caring for the garden that was the pride and joy of its previous owner, only to realise that she needs help - and friends - and takes the plunge by joining the local Garden Club?

Hidden Talents

Paradise House

Love and Devotion

Gardens of Delight

 *
 Question 8.
Which classic of English literature by L.P. Hartley is the moving story of one boy's romantic awakening, a tragic love story, and an elegant portrayal of rural life, looking back to life lived in the gardens of Brandham Hall?

The Go-Between

The Row-Between

The Tow-Between

The Sow-Between

 *
 Question 9.
Set amidst the ornate gardens of Versailles, whose poems, collected in Some Other Garden, brilliantly map the play of desire, vanity, dominance, and mortality that transpires among Louis XIV's flower beds?

Jane Urquhart

Sarah Maguire

Jackie Kay

Patience Agbabi

 *
 Question 10.
Which celebrated historical novelist published a short story collection titled The Gardens of the Villa Mollini, about mutability, improvement and escaping into new worlds, and featuring characters who constantly fail to understand themselves or anyone else?

Beryl Bainbridge

A.S. Byatt

Rose Tremain

Clare Boylan

 *

 

 How did I do?  * How did I do?

 

 Back to main quiz page  * Back to main quiz page
 *
 *  *  *
 *  *  *
 *
The British Council is registered in England as a charity. Our privacy statement. Our Freedom of Information Publications Scheme.
 *
 *  *  *
British Council Literature Contact us About this site Where to obtain British books overseas Help
© British Council
 *  *  *
 *  *  *
 * Developed and hosted by Artlogic Media Ltd London.  *