Question: From time to time the Earth's magnetic poles reverse; which is a way past reversals can be detected?
Answer: The direction of magnetism frozen in the basalt in ocean ridges lining volcanic activity

Question: Who is the most recent actor, up to 2015, to play the part of James Bond in films?
Answer: Daniel Craig

Question: The first recording sighting of the Australian mainland and landfall by a European, was in 1606 by whom?
Answer: Willem Janszoon

Question: A columbarium was originally a home for doves, but what was also, and is now most likely to be, found there?
Answer: Urns holding a deceaseds cremated remains

Question: Charles Lindberg's first transatlantic flight was between which two cities?
Answer: New York and Paris

Question: What is the title of Mike Leigh's 2014 film, featuring Timothy Spall in the title role in a biopic of a celebrated British painter?
Answer: Mr Turner

Question: Haricot beans are commonly used in what common canned product?
Answer: Baked beans

Question: In 2006 American Steven Wold became an overnight success in the UK, following more than 40 years in his profession, in what field?
Answer: Blues musician

Question: An oil used in cosmetics is produced in the seed of which shrub?
Answer: Jojoba

Question: How many leaders are recognised in 2014 as absolute monarchs?
Answer: 7

Question: Where would you observe the fhn effect?
Answer: On the lee, or downwind, side of a mountain range

Question: Wild Bill Hickok is a character in which musical?
Answer: Calamity Jane

Question: Who had hit records with "Tragedy" and "You Win Again"?
Answer: The Bee Gees

Question: How did the Roman Calendar differ from the Julian and subsequent Gregorian calendars?
Answer: It had a leap month rather than a leap day

Question: Kenneth Cobonpue from the Philippines is world famous in what?
Answer: Furniture design

Question: Who was vice president to George H W Bush?
Answer: Dan Quayle

Question: The team from which country won the 2014 ICU World Cheerleading Championship?
Answer: New Zealand

Question: Who was IBF Light Welterweight Champion from 4 March 1987 until he retired in December 1987, and was accused of being the masked gunman who shot Frank Warren, his former manager, twice in the chest in November 1989 outside the Broadway Theatre, Barking, England?
Answer: Terry Marsh

Question: Where would one find a favela?
Answer: In the cities of Brazil

Question: Fanta Four are one of what country's top hip hop bands?
Answer: Germany

Question: What was the first name of the 19th century Russian composer Mussorgsky?
Answer: Modest

Question: On whose book did Walt Disney base his 1940 feature film "Pinocchio"?
Answer: Carlo Collodi

Question: Which actor and musician, born in 1935, won a scholarship to study organ at Magdalen College, Oxford?
Answer: Dudley Moore

Question: Which British politician won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1953?
Answer: Winston Churchill

Question: What is the name of the cat that appeared in Warner Brothers cartoons?
Answer: Sylvester

Question: In "Speed The Plough" by Thomas Morton (1798) which character never appeared, but became a symbol of public prudery and conventional morality?
Answer: Mrs Grundy

Question: What colour is closest to picallili?
Answer: Yellow

Question: Where is the "Caprivi Strip"?
Answer: Namibia

Question: Who was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in 1327 and made to abdicate in favour of his son?
Answer: Edward II

Question: Which comic character first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 in August 1962?
Answer: Spiderman

Question: Some rivers do not flow to the sea, but empty instead into inland sinks or aquifers, or dry up or similar. Some of these are the Okavango, the Humboldt, the Kern, the Chu and ...?
Answer: The Bear, North America

Question: What strait separates the South Island of New Zealand from the more southerly Stewart Island?
Answer: Foveaux Strait

Question: Who became famous for editing and publishing texts of classic writing "purged of all coarse and indecent expressions"?
Answer: Thomas Bowdler

Question: The House of Bourbon, a European royal house one of whose monarchs was famously guillotined in France in 1792, has descendants currently on the throne of which country or countries?
Answer: Spain and Luxembourg

Question: The following is an extract from what work? "Lo! where the Giant on the mountain stands, His blood-red tresses deep'ning in the sun, With death-shot glowing in his fiery hands, And eye that scorcheth all it glares upon".
Answer: """Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"" by Lord Byron"

Question: Which 19th century American author went to sea aged 17 in a whaler, deserted twice, was captured by cannibals and joined a man of war before writing novels such as "White Jacket" and "Billy Budd"?
Answer: Herman Melville

Question: When was astronomy accepted by the Nobel Prize Committee as part of the discipline of physics, thereby making astronomers eligible for a Nobel Prize?
Answer: Shortly after astronomer Edwin Hubble's death in September 1953

Question: What is the word for someone who arranges marriages?
Answer: Matchmaker

Question: Which American novelist wrote over 30 books, including "The Pathfinder", "The Deerslayer" and "The Last of the Mohicans"?
Answer: James Fenimore Cooper

Question: Who investigated Bill Clinton's involvement in the Whitewater Land Transactions and his role in the Monica Lewinsky affair?
Answer: Kenneth Starr

Question: What police drama TV programme starring William Shatner in the title role as the 15-year veteran police sergeant was first aired in the USA from March 1982 to May 1985?
Answer: TJ Hooker

Question: Which popular song from 1972 told the story of the aftermath of an incident at a concert by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention when someone fired a flare gun?
Answer: Smoke on the Water

Question: Lise Meitner with Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered what, for which Hahn (only) received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1944?
Answer: That the uranium atom splits when bombarded by neutrons

Question: What British royal couple separated in 1989 after 16 years of marriage?
Answer: Princess Anne and Mark Phillips

Question: The highlights of which British General's career include the Battle of Dettingen and the Battle of Lauffeld during the War of Austrian Succession, the Battle of Falkirk and the Battle of Culloden during the Jacobite uprising, and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec during the Seven Years War?
Answer: James Wolfe

Question: Where would a thorny devil usually be found?
Answer: In the Australian arid scrubland or desert

Question: What is a common factor in these films - fairy tale fantasy "Enchanted", biopic "Mr Turner", the Harry Potter series of films, and social drama "Secrets & Lies"?
Answer: Actor Timothy Spall

Question: The night of 9 March 1945 saw, according to historians, the most devastating World War II bombing raid on what city?
Answer: Tokyo, Japan

Question: Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Guglielmo, Ferrando, Despina and Don Alfonso are characters in which opera?
Answer: Cos Fan Tutte

Question: The 12th century Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth is known for his writings on what?
Answer: History

Question: Since the building Taipei 101 topped 500m tall at the end of 2003, how many buildings have now, in 2015, topped 600m?
Answer: 3

Question: Who played Johnny Fontane in the film "The Godfather" and was previously known as a singer of hits such as "Here In My Heart", "Spanish Eyes", "Can't Help Falling in Love" and "Volare"?
Answer: Al Martino

Question: Who hit the top spot in 2002 with "U Got it Bad"?
Answer: Usher

Question: 1895 marked the first what for the International Cycling Association World Championships?
Answer: Championship races open to professionals

Question: Charity and Mercy Pecksniff appear in which novel by Charles Dickens?
Answer: Martin Chuzzlewit