The Christmas Quiz

It's nearly 1998 - but how much of 1997 can you remember? Test your wits with our annual quiz, compiled by Fiona Sturges. (Answers: page 34)

NOT SO MUCH CLOTHES HORSES AS CLOTHES TURKEYS

Who committed the crimes of fashion pictured left and right?

POLITICS

1 Who flew the highest on the Conservative campaign trail?

2 Which Labour MP with a seat in Scotland was the subject of accusations made by a political colleague who committed suicide?

3 Who, in April, predicted a bloodbath in May?

4 Match the mistress with the politician: Paula Strudwick, Anna Cox, Gaynor Regan; Robin Cook, Jonathan Aitken, Piers Merchant.

5 Why were senior Conservatives wearing more than just a knitted brow in Eastbourne in October?

6 Which hot spot led to Robin Cook being deemed more "caring and understanding" than Clare Short?

NOW YOU SEE 'EM ...

What did these people all do at some point in the last 12 months?

HITTING THE BIG TIME

Who is the odd one out, and why?

DRESS TO IMPRESS

Alexander McQueen, Miu Miu, Hussein Chalayan, Stella McCartney. Which outfit is which?

FUSS AND NONSENSE

Why were these people and things the subject of controversy?

WORLD EVENTS

1 Which 6ft 8in son of Zog wanted to swap his bungalow for a palace?

2 Which young British man helped some revolving Russians out of a space jam?

3 Why couldn't Indonesia breathe easy?

4 Which British Governor needed his hanky before heading for an extended holiday in the south of France?

5 Which self-declared King presented the Earth with his "exit statement" before rendezvousing with a comet?

6 Which tyre-factory worker and which British nurse exchanged their wedding vows in what unusual venue?

SPORT

1 Who took an ear-bashing on his way to a world title?

2 Which British Lion's boot kicked South Africa into touch?

3 Why was Patrick Rafter the bane of Britain?

4 Why was there much ado about nothing-nothing in Rome?

5 Who backfired when trying to take a corner?

6 Sounds Fyne was the appropriately named winner in November for which race-horse owner?

ART & THEATRE

1 How was a London cabbie left in the frame?

2 Which leading theatre company took its last bow and from where was it made homeless?

3 Fairy-tale lovers or kinky parasites? Whose Royal romance looked sublime then ridiculous on the London stage?

4 Which Brit-packer, builder of a house of love, drank to the winner of the Turner Prize?

5 What natural disaster caused a saint to crack up?

6 Which Hollywood film star, an ex-Rose, appeared on stage at the Chichester Festival?

BOOKS

1 Which seaside read is soon to get a tan on celluloid?

2 Which humourist went on a long walk with Stephen Katz?

3 Which wife was inspired by her media caricature to publish an encyclopaedia of kindred spirits?

4 What sort of bag came after the rattle?

5 Which 20th-century heroine dumped her boss and fell in love with Mr Darcy (eventually)?

6 Which prize-winner featured the twins Estha and Rahel, and the child Sophie Mol?

FILM & TV

1 What immodest act was committed by five girls, a female film director and a male DJ?

2 Who claimed to have met Dionne Warwick in a mental institution, and who encountered Donna Summer in a Sheffield DSS?

3 Dalmatians plus years in Tibet minus heads in a duffel-bag equals how much?

4 How is Tyneside preaching to the converted?

5 Who was last seen with Egg in her face at a wedding?

6 What teenage soap star was nearly driven over the edge, in real life and fiction?

MUSIC

1 Which old "Tosseurs" staged a chat-show walkout?

2 Who is Tricky's maverick kid uncle?

3 Which new staging of an opera buffa had a suitably hairy reception in London?

4 How were Prodigy and Kylie Minogue united in grief?

5 Which Britpop band were in it for the money?

6 Which Sixties icon graduated from Abbey Road to the Albert Hall with his symphonic poem?

CELEBRITY / GOSSIP

1 Which members of the Royal household were saved from cold feet?

2 Which Bill kept his trousers firmly zipped, but still told off the world of fashion?

3 What do Sly and Jennifer, Patsy and Liam, and Noel and Meg all have in common?

4 They couldn't "see the problem" because it was like "having a cup of tea". Who are they and what were they both talking about?

5 Who drank cranberry juice for money on US TV?

6 Who never stood a cat in hell's chance at No 10? Answers overleaf

TALKING DIRTY

Match the mud with the slinger, and name their target.

"There is something of the night about him."

"Up your hacienda, Jimmy. Get off back to Mexico."

"Have we slain one dragon only to have another take its place, with a red rose in its mouth?"

"To make matters worse, they elected a foetus as a party leader. I bet a lot of them wish they hadn't voted against abortion now." QUIZ ANSWERS

POLITICS

1 Will Self, who allegedly smoked heroin in the toilets of John Major's campaign jet.

2 Tommy Graham, accused in Gordon McMaster's suicide note.

3 Edwina Currie in the Express on Sunday: "After 1 May there will be a Tory bloodbath."

4 Paula Strudwick and Jonathan Aitken; Gaynor Regan and Robin Cook; Anna Cox and Piers Merchant.

5 They were encouraged to dress "smart-casual": the result was a preponderance of unattractive woolly jumpers.

6 Cook took charge of relations with the volcano-threatened island of Montserrat, after Clare Short fell out with local politicians.

WORLD EVENTS

1 King Leka, who returned to his homeland of Albania from exile in South Africa.

2 Astronaut Michael Foale, who went on a six-hour space walk to mend damage to the Mir space station.

3 Huge forest fires in Sumatra, Borneo and Java caused a lethal smog to spread across south-east Asia.

4 Chris Patten, who shed tears during the handover of Hong Kong, before leaving for a gite in France.

5 King Do of the Heaven's Gate cult, who led a mass suicide in San Diego in March.

6 Grant Ferrie and Lucille McLauchlan (one of the nurses accused of murdering Yvonne Gilford) married in a Saudi courthouse.

SPORT

1 Evander Holyfield, who had a chunk of his ear chewed off by Mike Tyson in their heavyweight title fight.

2 Jeremy Guscott, whose dropped goal won the Lions the series against South Africa.

3 He beat Greg Rusedski in the US Open tennis final.

4 England qualified for next year's World Cup finals with a goalless draw against Italy.

5 Michael Schumacher, whose collision with Jacques Villeneuve cost him any chance of the World Formula 1 championship.

6 Sir Peter O'Sullevan, who that same day commentated on his last race before retirement.

ART & THEATRE

1 The thief of Picasso's Tete de Femme made his getaway in a cab from a Mayfair gallery, leaving the frame behind in the back seat.

2 The Peter Hall Theatre Company made their final performance at the Old Vic this month after the theatre's owners decided to sell up.

3 There were two shows in the West End this year about Edward and Mrs Simpson: Snoo Wilson's HRH, and the musical Always.

4 Tracey Emin, maker of Everyone I Have Ever Slept With (a tent covered in embroidered names), appeared drunk on television during a post-Turner Prize discussion.

5 An earthquake in Umbria damaged a series of Giotto frescos in the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi.

6 Kathleen Turner , who starred in the play Tallulah.

BOOKS

1 The Beach; its writer Alex Garland sold the film rights to the team who made Trainspotting.

2 Bill Bryson, in A Walk in the Woods.

3 Christine Hamilton, with The Bumper Book of British Battleaxes.

4 The School Bag, Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes's follow-up to their landmark poetry anthology The Rattle Bag.

5 Bridget Jones, in Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary.

6 Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things.

FILM & TV

1 The Spice Girls, Sally Potter and Howard Stern all featured in films about themselves: Potter wrote, directed and starred in The Tango Lesson, the Spice Girls appeared in Spice World: the Movie and Howard Stern played himself in Howard Stern's Private Parts.

2 Rupert Everett in My Best Friend's Wedding, and the boys from The Full Monty.

3 101 plus seven minus eight = 99.

4 TV evangelists Rory and Wendy Alec are using television studios in Tyneside as a base for Europe's first Christian satellite TV channel.

5 Millie from This Life, when Egg, her boyfriend, discovered she'd been having an affair.

6 EastEnder Paul Nicholls, the actor who played the mentally unstable Joe, retired from the BBC1 soap due to "the pressures of fame".

MUSIC

1 The Bee Gees walked out of Clive Anderson All Talk when their host referred to their previous name, Les Tosseurs.

2 Twenty-one-year-old reggae/R&B singer Finley Quaye. His half sister, Maxin Quaye (also the title of Tricky's debut album), is Tricky's mother.

3 November's "wacky" production of The Barber of Seville for the Royal Opera House.

4 After the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Kylie changed the name of her forthcoming album, Impossible Princess, to Kylie Minogue, while Prodigy changed the picture on the cover of their single "Smack My Bitch Up" from a car crash to a break dancer.

5 Oxford three-piece Supergrass: their album was titled In It For the Money.

6 Paul McCartney, whose orchestral score Standing Stone was premiered at the Albert Hall in November.

CELEBRITY / GOSSIP

1 The Queen's corgies, who were given protective booties to ease the sufferings of old age.

2 President Clinton. He managed to avoid revealing his private parts to American courts, despite Paula Jones's accusation of sexual harrassment; this year he also slammed fashion's "heroin chic" look with the warning: "Glorifying death is not good for any society."

3 Fears of paparazzi and public invasion led them all to hold secret wedding ceremonies.

4 Brian Harvey of East 17 and Oasis's Noel Gallagher, who were both talking about Ecstasy. Harvey was sacked from his band for his remarks, while Gallagher was publicly criticised by Leah Betts's father.

5 The Duchess of York, who starred in an advert for Ocean Spray cranberry juice in an effort to clear her debts.

6 Humphrey, No 10's resident cat, who was rumoured to have been put down on the orders of Cherie Blair. Government spin doctors were forced to organise a photocall to prove he was alive and well.