Question: In July 2010 Amazon announced that their quarterly volume sales of digital books (ebooks) had exceeded their sales of what in the US for the first time?
Answer: Hardback books

Question: A philtre (in US-English, philter) - pronounced 'filter' - is a potion for what?
Answer: Love

Question: In rugby union, which position is known only by the number on the shirt?
Answer: Number Eight

Question: The Canadian city of Montreal lies on which river?
Answer: St Lawerence

Question: Who or what is Laura Chinchilla?
Answer: Costa Rica's first female president

Question: Wenlock and Mandeville are the mascots of which sporting event?
Answer: 2012 London Olympics

Question: Who succeeded John Major as leader of the UK Conservative Party in 1997?
Answer: William Hague

Question: The Aswan Dam, which enables controlled use of the Nile flood plain for agriculture, is in which African country?
Answer: Egypt

Question: Who played Claus Von Bulow in the 1990 film Reversal of Fortune?
Answer: Jeremy Irons

Question: The name of what ethnic celebration derives from the Aramaic and Hebrew words respectively for son and commandment?
Answer: Bar Mitzvah

Question: Which many-times champion golfer is known as the Golden Bear?
Answer: Jack Nicklaus

Question: In Greek mythology, what did Prometheus steal from Zeus and give to mankind?
Answer: Fire

Question: Who captained the England cricket team during the 1986-87 Ashes series?
Answer: Mike Gatting

Question: What is the reciprocal of one-and-two-thirds (in other words, what fraction when multiplied by one-and-two-thirds produces one)?
Answer: Three-fifths

Question: Which war was the subject of the 1978 film The Deerhunter?
Answer: Vietnam War

Question: The 1970s UK TV variety show was called "The 'what and what' Social Club", alluding to two traditional steam railway trades?
Answer: Wheeltappers and Shunters

Question: If someone is bibulous, what are they addicted to or fond of?
Answer: Alcohol

Question: How many squares are traditionally on a Snakes and Ladders board?
Answer: One hundred

Question: Which day of the week is named after the Norse god of thunder?
Answer: Thursday

Question: Which one of these countries is not (as at 2010) a NATO member?
Answer: Sweden

Question: In 1907, who was the first English writer to win the Nobel Prize for literature?
Answer: Rudyard Kipling

Question: Name the two famous British brothers whose father was born Adolphe, in 1924, in Brussels, to Polish-Jewish parents, and was buried as Ralph in Highgate Cemetery close to Karl Marx in 1994?
Answer: Ed and David Miliband

Question: What is the Russian term for an astronaut?
Answer: Cosmonaut

Question: The national flags of which group of countries have a cross design named after the grouping, in which the vertical line is shifted from the centre to the hoist (left) side, and among which is the oldest of all national flags?
Answer: Scandinavia

Question: Which palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury?
Answer: Lambeth Palace

Question: A tercentenary is an anniversary of how many years?
Answer: Three hundred

Question: What is the name of a Spanish dance, and associated with this a short jacket worn open at the front?
Answer: Bolero

Question: Name the 'Big Five' traits represented by the OCEAN personality analysis model?
Answer: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism

Question: What is the name of the small hammer with a circular rubber head used by doctors to test body reflexes, particularly at the knee?
Answer: Plexor

Question: In what year was England ruled (technically) by kings called Edward, Harold, Edgar and William, in that order?
Answer: 1066

Question: Ligneous relates to which natural substance?
Answer: Wood

Question: The auto-biographical poem 'The Story of Suicide Sal' was written by which 1930s female outlaw?
Answer: Bonnie Parker

Question: Who was the US Secretary of State 1973-1977?
Answer: Henry Kissinger

Question: The Edgbaston Test Cricket Ground is in which English city?
Answer: Birmingham

Question: The song 'San Quentin', about the California state prison, was written, and subsequently performed there, by which artist, recorded on a live album and British TV documentary?
Answer: Johnny Cash

Question: What word, which is a type of protective helmet and part of citrus fruit, originally referred to the stem marrow of plants, and now refers figuratively to the core of a subject or argument?
Answer: Pith

Question: The Scandinavian raw dish gravlax is made from which creature?
Answer: Salmon

Question: The historic Paddy's Market, supposedly named after or by early 1800s Irish immigrants, and which was closed in May 2009, was situated in which city?
Answer: Glasgow

Question: Irish born missionary Saint Aidan founded a monastery in 653 on which English island, which is also the name of a 1970s UK folk-rock band?
Answer: Lindisfarne

Question: Triops Cancriformis, discovered in Scotland in July 2010 and said by scientists to have the oldest pedigree (over 200m years) of any living animal on Earth is what type of creature?
Answer: Shrimp

Question: In cycling, what colour jersey is worn by the leader of the Tour of Italy?
Answer: Pink

Question: The green of London's Parliament Square was named what by activists during 2010, when sporadic protests developed into a large camp community?
Answer: Democracy Village

Question: In which secure London building was Hitler's deputy Rudolph Hess briefly imprisoned in May 1941 after he fled Germany to Scotland?
Answer: The Tower of London

Question: What is the method of dyeing fabric in which the parts not to be dyed are covered with removeable wax?
Answer: Batik

Question: Who was the first female film director to win a best film Oscar?
Answer: Kathryn Bigelow

Question: The inactive volcano, Mauna Kea (meaning 'white mountain' in the local native language), is in which US state?
Answer: Hawaii

Question: Who composed the music for the opera Porgy and Bess, about 1920s African American life in Charleston, South Carolina?
Answer: George Gershwin

Question: The mineral and ore pitchblende is rich in what radioactive element, after which it is now named?
Answer: Uranium

Question: Bianca is the younger sister of Katherina in which Shakespeare comedy play?
Answer: The Taming of the Shrew

Question: Manchester United's 2010 Spanish signing nicknamed Chicharito means what in Spanish?
Answer: Little Pea

Question: On which item of dress would a cockade normally be worn?
Answer: Hat

Question: Natives of which English city are known as Loiners?
Answer: Leeds

Question: A dageurreotype was an early type of what?
Answer: Photograph

Question: What is the one-sleeved half-jacket worn under a jacket as additional protection in the sport of fencing?
Answer: Plastron

Question: Cnut the Great, who ruled Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden from 1018-35, is commonly known by what other name, particularly relating to a story of attempting to 'rule the sea'?
Answer: King Canute

Question: In which European country are the Altamira cave paintings?
Answer: Spain

Question: Who unexpectedly beat Jimmy Connors in the 1975 Wimbledon Men's Singles Final?
Answer: Arthur Ashe

Question: In 1994, the USA lifted a nineteen year trade ban for which country?
Answer: Vietnam

Question: By what name did the 1932-33 England-Australia cricket series become known, after the visiting English team, notably fast bowler Harold Larwood, employed controversial tactics of bowling at batsmen's heads and chests, rather than the wicket?
Answer: Bodyline

Question: In which ocean is the island of Madeira?
Answer: Atlantic

Question: What Japanese expression derives from two colloquial Japanese words meaning 'belly cutting'?
Answer: Hara-Kiri

Question: In which country was escapologist Harry Houdini born?
Answer: Hungary