This bloody difficult quiz was first delivered, with perverse irony, at a London Historians event about historical Londoners. Could you beat the winning score of 6/10, or match the modal score of 3/10?
Famous Londoners of the Future
1. The 1872 book London: A Pilgrimage by Blanchard Jerrold, with illustrations by Gustave Dore, ends with this famous depiction of a future London. A man sits on a rock by the Thames, contemplating the ruins of our city, with the dome of St Paul's crumbled in, and everything else in rubble. He has travelled far to survey the ruins, just as Victorians would journey to the continent to study the remnants of the Greek and Roman civilisations. But what country is this apocalyptic sightseer said to come from?
2. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is the most fearful spirit to appear in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. But who plays Ebenezer Scrooge in the greatest film adaptation of the story, A Muppet's Christmas Carol?
3. Which 19th century Londoner takes over the computer of the Starship Enterprise in the original series Star Trek episode Wolf in the Fold?
4. Ralph Steadman is an illustrator best known for his collaborations with Hunter S Thompson. According to a blue plaque on his house in Parsons Green (below, with date smudged out), what future year is he due to die in?
5. Which famous author wrote the 1826 novel The Last Man, the story of Lionel Verney who is the sole survivor of a worldwide plague in the 2090s?
6. In the far-off future, when the unthinkable happens, and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II reaches the natural end of her reign, then we will, of course, get a new monarch. Let's suppose, for the purposes of a quiz question, that the first 9 people in the Line of Succession all decide that the job is not really for them. They all turn down the honour. Who, as 10th in the Line of Succession, would become the new king or queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms? (As things currently stand.)
7. Which famous figure threw a champagne party for time travellers in 2009, only announcing the party after it had happened to make sure attendees would be from the future?
8. In which famous novel is a distant-future Richmond-Upon-Thames populated by beings known as the Eloi and Morlocks?
9. Why will Jem Finer, one of the founders of punk band The Pogues, be heavily praised on 31 December 2999?
10. Which famous author wrote the 1962 novel The Drowned World, which follows the adventures of Dr Robert Kerans amid the flooded ruins of London in 2145?
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Answers
1. New Zealand
2. Michael Caine
3. Jack the Ripper
4. 2036
5. Mary Shelley
6. Princess Beatrice. The line of succession is Charles, William + 3 children, Harry + 2 child, Andrew, and then his daughter Beatrice in 10th place.
7. Stephen Hawking. Nobody turned up. (Hawking wasn't really a Londoner, but you try finding 10 questions about future Londoners!)
8. The Time Machine by HG Wells
9. Longplayer. This piece of music, currently performing at Trinity Buoy Wharf, is designed to play for 1,000 years without repetition. This is the date it will finally finish and reset. Jem Finer 'composed' the computer-generated ditty.
10. JG Ballard
