Quiz of The Year

Whose jail sentence lasted 82 minutes? Which actor did Matt Damon name </p><p>his false nose after in Ocean's Thirteen? What was the name of Jose Mourinho's controversial Yorkshire terrier?...Here are 170 questions to find out how much you really remember about the year that was (answers at end)

his false nose after in Ocean's Thirteen? What was the name of Jose Mourinho's controversial Yorkshire terrier?...Here are 170 questions to find out how much you really remember about the year that was (answers at end)

ART & DESIGN

1. What sizeable sum did Damien Hirst's For the Love of God reportedly fetch in August?

2. A sculpture by which Turner prize-winning artist ended up in a skip after being mistaken for rubbish?

3. Bear suit-wearing Trigger Happy TV star Dom Joly accused which artist of stealing his idea?

4. Which poet helped to lead a campaign to save St Pancras station in London from demolition in 1967 and is commemorated by a statue in the new Eurostar terminal?

5. What did the former director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Sir Roy Strong, describe as "tacky, glitzy and brash. It would be all right in one of the darker streets of Soho"?

6. The first centenary of which Mexican artist's birthday was marked on 6 July?

7. Which 18th-century English man of letters was attacked with a hammer in the National Portrait Gallery?

8. Which painting featured on the bestselling postcard at the Tate galleries this year?

9. Crosby beach in Liverpool

became the permanent home of which art installation?

10. What did 77-year-old pensioner Jean Preston discover in her spare room that was eventually sold for 1.7m?

11. How did the exhibition State Britain break the law?

BROADCASTING

1. Which universally panned 2007 show featured Michael Portillo, Ingrid Tarrant and Jacqueline Gold amongst its celebrity participants?

2. What should Socks, the new Blue Peter cat, have been named according to a viewers' poll?

3. Which tight-trousered BBC broadcaster was warned for repeatedly promoting his autobiography on air?

4. Which television show was savaged by newspaper critics as both "...terrible. Witless. Insubstantial. Saggy. Navel-gazing" and "ending with a resolution so tritely benevolent that it effectively gave you permission to dismiss everything that had gone before as mere theatrics"?

5. About whom did Victoria Coren write: "In Sex and the City she is predatory Samantha, proper Charlotte and ambitious Miranda. In Desperate Housewives she is hapless Susan, hardline Bree, multi-tasking Lynette and money-hungry Gaby"?

6. Who did The Sunday Times columnist Paul Donovan describe as "a coarse buffoon" upon learning of his nomination as one of the 25 greatest broadcasters of all time?

7. Who links the 2007 dramas Northanger Abbey, A Room With a View and Fanny Hill?

8. Which soap character was described by The Guardian's Grace Dent as "the sum total of all of our tabloid fears about the terrifying youth of today"?

9. How many (human) characters died in the entire run of The Sopranos?

10. For what did US reporter Joshua Wolf, now running for mayor of San Francisco, spend 266 days in jail?

BUSINESS

1. In May, which two airlines admitted that they had breached regulations by colluding to fix surcharge prices?

2. With which former chief executive did Jeff Chevalier have a not-so-secret affair?

3. Which high-street chain became Zavvi in September?

4. As of December, how many Premier League clubs were foreign-owned?

5. Under what name did Tesco launch its chain of US stores?

6. Name the chief executive who accepted an estimated pay-off of 77m after a year in which his employer lost 4bn.

7. What did Singapore Airlines ban on the new Airbus superjumbo?

8. What was the name of Yahoo!'s social network site, which was forced to close due to lack of interest?

9. In June the Government announced measures to lower inheritance tax. Who in 1924 said it was "a corrective against the development of a race of idle rich"?

10. Which company bought a 75 per cent stake in travel publisher Lonely Planet in October?

11. Kongo Gumi of Japan, which began trading in 578AD, was reportedly the world's oldest company until it went bust in 2007. What service did it provide?

COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD

1. Which two countries will join the euro on 1 January?

2. The Facebook page of Rudy Giuliani's daughter Caroline revealed her support for which US presidential candidate?

3. Which country celebrated the start of the third millennium in September?

4. Which country topped an African league table of good governance in September?

5. Who became the first female speaker of the House of Representatives in the US?

6. What did Slovenian Martin Strel swim in 66 days?

7. In which countries are the following rebel groups currently active?

a) Farc

b) LTTE

c) Ulfa

8. Who, at 27, is the world's youngest serving state leader?

9. Once a week Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez broadcasts to the nation for five hours at a time. What is the name of his talk-show?

10. Which political leader accepted his 26th pay rise in 10 years?

CRIMES AND LEGAL AFFAIRS

1. How did 17-year-old home-wrecker Rachael Bell make the news?

2. Which of the following news stories from the past year are true?

a) An 81-year-old woman was issued with an Asbo for threatening behaviour.

b) A 12-year-old boy was charged with assault for throwing a cocktail sausage.

c) A driver of an ice-cream van was charged with disturbing the peace by playing his jingle too frequently.

3. Which former police minister was fined 100 under legislation he helped to draw up?

4. A British crime survey found that, as a result of the new 24-hour licensing law, crime between the hours of 3am and 6am had:

a) decreased by 6 per cent

b) increased by 12 per cent

c) increased by 22 per cent

5. On which of the following counts was former media tycoon Conrad Black found guilty?

a) mail fraud

b) wire fraud

c) racketeering

d) obstruction of justice

6. Whose "worm's eye view" of prison is to be used for advice on Conservatives' penal reform policy?

7. In its latest recruitment drive, how has MI6 chosen to reach its audience?

EDUCATION

1. Which university stripped Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe of his honorary degree for services to education in Africa?

2. What was missing from Britain's most expensive state school, the 46m Thomas Deacon Academy in Peterborough, when it opened in September?

3. What misdemeanour linked students Lydia Playfoot and Sarika Singh?

4. How did Gordon Brown carve up the Department for Education?

5. Axeman-cum-astrophysicist Brian May became chancellor of which university in November?

6. According to a study by the Higher Education Policy Institute in September, how many hours does the average UK university student spend studying per week?

7. Which college was the first to announce its closure in Oxford University's 800-year history?

8. What unusual educational facility was added to Hylton Red House School in Sunderland?

ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE

1. What did Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announce would be phased out by 2011?

2. Which country overtook the US to become the world's largest producer of carbon dioxide?

3. Why did Australian performance artist Stelios Arcadiou make the news this year?

4. Which London institution cancelled a speech from DNA pioneer Dr James Watson after he claimed black Africans were of inferior intelligence?

5. Which of the following animals requires a licence to be kept as a pet? Squirrel monkey, emu, mangrove snake, ostrich, capybara

6. In his exhibition The Myth of the North on which side of the north-south divide did professor of human geography Danny Dorling place

the following?

a) Gloucester

b) Leicester

c) Nottingham

7. What is the thickness of graphene, the world's thinnest material, first manufactured this year?

8. Flooding in July cancelled all home cricket fixtures at which county ground?

9. How many years did it take Dr Jonathan Schaeffer to complete the first computer programme unbeatable at draughts?

10. UK radiologist Brian Witcombe won the spoof Ig Nobel prize in October. What did he study?

11. Which city was named as the UK's booziest, based on its residents' lifetime spend on alcohol?

12. A two-year-old girl who was successfully separated from her unparasitic parasitic twin was named after which Hindu goddess?

FILM

1. Who received the eighth nomination of his career for best actor at the 2007 Oscars but is yet to win?

2. Who is missing from this list: Ben Whishaw, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Christian Bale and _____________?

3. In September, which film series became the highest grossing franchise of all time?

4. Quentin Tarantino directed Death Proof, one half of the Grindhouse double-bill. Who directed the second half, Planet Terror?

5. What nationality is director Cristian Mungiu, whose film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days won the Palme d'Or at Cannes?

6. According to a Forbes magazine report, for every $1 Matt Damon is paid, his films gross $29. Match up the following stars to their gross potential:

1) Russell Crowe

2) Jennifer Aniston

3) Brad Pitt

a) $17 b) $5 c) $24

7. Who links the actors Steve Coogan and Craig Parkinson?

8. Which risible sequel won Worst Film at the 2007 Golden Raspberry Awards?

9. The false nose worn by Matt Damon in Ocean's Thirteen was named after which actor?

10. According to Sicko, from whom did Jim Kenefick, the webmaster of an anti-Michael Moore site, receive an anonymous payment for $12,000 to cover his wife's medical bills?

11. What is the real name of Superbad's McLovin?

12. What according to the American Film Institute's once-in-a-decade poll, is the greatest US film of all time?

LITERATURE

1. Whose novel Crystal was revealed to be outselling the entire Booker shortlist in September?

2. Who was praised for the depiction of Canada in her debut novel, despite never having visited the country?

3. Whose offspring were revealed to be James, Albus and Lily?

4. Whose essay on radical Islam did literary critic Terry Eagleton liken to "the ramblings of a British National Party thug"?

5. Which award-winning author was forced to return stones stolen from a protected Dorset beach?

6. Lloyd Jones's Booker-nominated novel Mister Pip took its inspiration from which 19th-century novel?

7. From whose poetry debut are the following lines taken "Every child's a human being/Not a piece of Plasticine/Loving parents, learn from me/If your children crave TV/Tell them, OK, what the hell/You can watch it for a spell/If you read a book as well."

8. Of the 18 publishers contacted, how many recognised David Lassman's plagiarised manuscript as the work of Jane Austen?

9. Which author and reporter was outed by a Polish magazine as a former communist spy after his death in January?

10. Why was Krystian Bala's novel Amok proven to be rather too autobiographical?

11. Complete the sequence: Robert Markham, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, ___________

12. Whose latest (and final) book was described by The New Republic as containing "the silliest passage I have read in the literature of spiritual autobiography, which is a literature of considerable silliness"?

MUSIC

1. Rhianna's ubiquitous summer hit "Umbrella" lasted 10 weeks at number one. What was the previous song to reach this milestone?

2. How did Jammie Thomas of Minnesota achieve notoriety?

3. What was 2007's highest-grossing tour?

4. Which band were criticised by Al Gore for leaving Live Earth by private jet?

5. Who broke up in January blaming "musical similarities"?

6. Which British institution linked Bryan Ferry, Take That and The Feeling's Dan Gillespie Sells?

7. Who won Popjustice's 20 Music Prize for the best pop single of the year?

8. According to one critic, whose first album for 28 years provided "a thousand unintentional laughs as it takes awfulness to new heights"?

9. Who returned with a new album in 2007, five years after announcing she hoped the music industry "all goes down the crapper"?

10. "He liked to dress me up as a little schoolgirl and he would be the naughty priest, or we would trade sexes and he would put on my clothes and I would put on his." Who does rock groupie Pamela Des Barres rate as her "freakiest" lover?

11. Each of these rappers released an album in 2007, but what does their birth certificate say?

1. Dizzee Rascal

2. Shaggy

3. 50 Cent

4. Jay-Z

a) Orville Burrell, b) Shawn Carter, c) Dylan Mills, d) Curtis Jackson

OBITUARIES

1. The former Daily Telegraph editor Bill Deedes, who died in August, inspired which literary character?

2. Who was the Sage of Cricklewood?

3. How did Boris Yeltsin, who died in April, lose his left thumb and index finger?

4. Which fashion designer, who died in June, built the first female-founded company to make the Fortune 500?

5. Which French postmodernist thinker, who died in March, described the United States as "the last primitive society"?

6. Which influential film director, who died in July, thought that Orson Welles was "just a hoax" and that Antonioni had directed two masterpieces "you don't have to bother with the rest"?

7. Who did the recently deceased Isabella Blow describe as "a blow-up doll with brains"?

8. What was unusual about the rampaging horde whose attack led to the death of SS Bajwa, the former deputy mayor of Delhi?

9. Which writer who died in April once argued that giraffes, hippopotami and the clap were evidence that evolution was controlled by a divine power?

10. Who died suddenly in September at the age of 31 with the last words "You'll be in tomorrow?"

11. In which television drama did Mike Reid make his final screen appearance?

12. Which writer, who died in October aged 102, had a mother, father, sister and husband who were each the recipient of a Nobel prize?

PARLIAMENT

1. Which male and female MPs came top of a Radio Five Live poll to find the sexiest parliamentarians?

2. Which MP requested that "Honourable Members should leave any cheeky business completely to me"?

3. Gordon Brown's gift to George Bush on his visit to Camp David in July was a book about Winston Churchill. What did he receive in return?

4. Which very liberal Lib Dem councillor was revealed to be moonlighting as an adult entertainer?

5. What parliamentary privilege was overturned this year?

6. How many of the following cabinet members issued a statement admitting to having used cannabis: Ruth Kelly, Hazel Blears, Andy Burnham, Alistair Darling, Harriet Harman, Jacqui Smith, John Hutton?

7. Who bounced back from a scandal in January to become David Cameron's chief spin-doctor in June?

8. Who won politician of the year at The Spectator's parliamentary awards in November?

9. Who said in July: "Being lectured by the current House of Commons on the question of the funding of political campaigns is like being accused of having bad taste by Donald Trump, like being accused of slouching by the Hunchback of Notre Dame"?

10. Who became Labour's youngest ever parliamentary candidate?

11. When asked in an interview to judge Tony Blair's premiership how many out of 10 did Ming Campbell rate him?

PRIZEWINNERS

Name the 2007 winner(s) of:

1. Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction

2. Stirling prize

3. Carnegie of Carnegies

4. Golden Bear

5. Mercury Music prize

6. GQ Woman of the Year

7. Crufts Best in Show

8. Rear of the Year

9. Foot in Mouth Award

10. England Village of the Year

QUOTES

Who said the following during 2007?

1. "For 50 years or more, Elizabeth Windsor has maintained her dignity, her sense of duty - and her hairstyle."

2. "I've won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one, so I'm delighted to win them all. It's a royal flush."

3. "I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a bit of blow."

4. "Women aren't cats, we aren't pets, we are just people trying to cross the freaking street to get an ice-cream."

5. "What we have done in the last five weeks is the equivalent of Gretna taking on Real Madrid in the Bernabeu and beating them on penalties."

6. "Working for the BBC has always been a bit like living in Stalin's Russia, with one five-year plan...after another."

7. "Everybody's got a black sheep in the family. A crazy uncle in the attic."

8. "I love her anyway, even if she's a ginge."

9. "I have expressed a degree of regret that can be equated with an apology."

10. "Statistically, I am due to be fired again."

11. "I'm in big trouble, aren't I?"

SOCIETY

1. Match the celebrity to the length of prison sentence:

1. Paris Hilton

2. Nicole Richie

3. Lindsay Lohan

a) 82 minutes b) 23 days c) 84 minutes

2. Angelina Jolie's adopted children are from which three countries?

3. For which fashion chain did Kate Middleton work as a buyer in 2007?

4. What $100,000 Hollywood tradition was scrapped this year following an intervention from the taxman?

5. Match the Spice mums to their babies:

1) Geri; 2) Emma; 3) Mel B

a) Beau Lee; b) Angel Iris;c) Bluebell Madonna

6. For the following WAGs, provide her footballing other half: (a) Toni Poole (b) Nomie Lenoir (c) Charlotte Meares

7. Which celebrity rag regular was christened "Chipshop" by satirical email newsletter Popbitch?

9. How is Mario Armando Lavandeira Jnr better known?

10. Why was Room 609 of the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood in the news this year?

SPORT

1. Before Jamie Murray's 2007 victory, who was the last British man to win the mixed doubles at the Wimbledon Championships?

2. Jonny Wilkinson was one of four England players to start both the 2003 and 2007 Rugby World Cup finals. Name the other three.

3. Where did Lewis Hamilton record his first Formula One victory?

4. In a Mori poll conducted in June, what percentage of participants disapproved of the London 2012 Olympic logo?

a) 28 per cent

b) 48 per cent

c) 68 per cent

5. Who became the first cricketer to take four wickets in consecutive deliveries in a one-day international?

6. What record was set during the morning of fourth day of the second Test between England and the West Indies?

7. Who became the first Indian golfer to compete at the Masters?

8. What was the name of Jos Mourinho's Yorkshire terrier who became embroiled in a quarantine row?

9. Which two men outgunned Asafa Powell to win gold and silver in the men's 100m final at the World Athletics Championships in September?

10. What was the last men's singles grand slam final not to feature Roger Federer, and who won it?

THE STAGE

1. Who played the role of Iain Duncan Smith in TONY! The Blair Musical?

2. Who complained that contemporary drama criticism was dominated by "dead white men"?

3. Which actor played the Shakespearean characters Macbeth, Malvolio and Prospero during 2007?

4. Director Matthew Warchus visited which author's grave to apologise for adapting one of his works for the stage?

5. What links Danny Bayne, Susan McFadden and Lee Mead?

6. Which pop star's younger brother replaced Daniel Radcliffe in Equus?

7. Whose songs formed the soundtrack to the musical Never Forget?

8. Which fashion designer lent her flamboyance to Verdi's Aida?

THE YEAR IN FIGURES

Each of the following numbers was significant in 2007. Match up the number with the reason why.

1. 0.0682

2. 2.90

3. 9.74

4. 114

5. 123

6. 172

7. 2,618

8. 177,265

9. 7,700,000

10. 151,116,516

a) Duration in days of Alan Johnston's kidnapping

b) The number of toilets at the new Wembley Stadium

c) The percentage of Britney Spears' monthly income donated to charity

d) Time in seconds of Asafa Powell's new 100m world record

e) The speed in mph Tim Brady was recorded as reaching in a 70mph zone

f) The average price in pounds paid for Radiohead's In Rainbows album sold through a pay-what-you-like scheme

g) The record-breaking box-office gross in dollars of Spider-Man 3 in its first weekend in the US

h) The record number of visitors to the four Tate galleries in 2006-07

i) The time in minutes the inaugural high-speed Eurostar service took to run from Paris to London in September

j) The area in hectares destroyed by forest fires in Greece during the summer

ANSWERS

ART & DESIGN

1. 50m

2. Anish Kapoor

3. Mark Wallinger, whose Turner Prize exhibition entry was a film of a man wandering around a gallery in a bear suit.

4. Sir John Betjeman

5. Thomas Schtte's Model for a Hotel 2007 in Trafalgar Square

6. Frida Kahlo

7. Samuel Johnson

8. John Everett Millais's Ophelia

9. Antony Gormley's Another Place

10. Two panels belonging to Fra Angelico's Florentine San Marco altarpiece

11. The exhibition, which reconstructed Brian Haw's peace protest outside the Houses of Parliament, transgressed the exclusion zone banning demonstrations within a kilometre of Parliament Square.

BROADCASTING

1. The Verdict

2. Cookie

3. Terry Wogan

4. This Life + 10

5. The Apprentice's Katie Hopkins

6. Chris Moyles

7. Screenwriter Andrew Davies

8. Coronation Street's David Platt

9. 92

10. Refusing to hand over footage he shot of G8 protests in 2005

BUSINESS

1. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic

2. Lord Browne of Madingley

3. Virgin Megastore

4. Eight Aston Villa, Chelsea, Fulham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Portsmouth and West Ham

5. Fresh & Easy

6. Stan O'Neal of Merrill Lynch

7. In-flight sex, which became more appealing with the introduction of private cabins equipped with a double bed.

8. Yahoo! 360°

9. Winston Churchill

10. The BBC

11. Temple building

COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD

1. Cyprus and Malta

2. Barack Obama

3. Ethiopia, which uses the Coptic calendar

4. Mauritius

5. Nancy Pelosi

6. The length of the Amazon (5,268km, or 3,273 miles)

7. a) Colombia; b) Sri Lanka; c) India

8. Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck of Bhutan

9. Alo Presidente! (Hello, President!)

10. Ireland's Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern

CRIMES AND LEGAL AFFAIRS

1. Her MySpace-advertised party caused 20,000 of damage to her parents' home.

2. a and b

3. Liam Byrne MP, for using his mobile phone while driving.

4. c

5. a and d

6. Jonathan Aitken's, imprisoned in 1999 for "calculated perjury"

7. Through a Radio 1 campaign

EDUCATION

1. Edinburgh

2. A playground

3. Both were excluded from lessons for wearing inappropriate religious jewellery.

4. He established the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

5. Liverpool John Moores

6. 26

7. Greyfriars

8. An on-site call centre

ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE

1. The traditional tungsten lightbulb

2. China

3. He had an ear grafted on to his arm.

4. The Science Museum

5. Ostrich

6. a) south; b) south; c) north

7. One atom

8. Worcestershire's New Road

9. 18

10. The dangers and side effects of being a sword swallower. His conclusion was that it can lead to a sore throat.

11. Belfast

12. Lakshmi

FILM

1. Peter O'Toole

2. Heath Ledger all six play Bob Dylan in the biopic I'm Not There

3. The Harry Potter movies

4. Robert Rodriguez

5. Romanian

6. 1 b; 2 a; 3 c

7. Tony Wilson, who was played by Coogan in 24 Hour Party People and Parkinson in Control

8. Basic Instinct 2

9. Adrien Brody

10. Michael Moore

11. Fogell

12. Citizen Kane

LITERATURE

1. Katie Price, aka Jordan

2. Stef Penney, for The Tenderness of Wolves

3. Harry Potter

4. Martin Amis's

5. Ian McEwan

6. Great Expectations

7. Boris Johnson

8. One Jonathan Cape

9. Ryszard Kapuscinski

10. He was convicted of co-ordinating a murder due to the similarities between the novel and a real-life case.

11. Sebastian Faulks writers to have written James Bond novels after Ian Fleming's death.

12. Norman Mailer

MUSIC

1. Wet Wet Wet's "Love Is All Around" in 1994

2. She was fined $222,000 for violating copyright of songs she made available for download on the Kazaa file-sharing network.

3. The Police's reunion

4. Razorlight

5. The Beautiful South

6. All advertised menswear for Marks and Spencer.

7. Amy Winehouse for "Rehab"

8. The Eagles

9. Joni Mitchell

10. Keith Moon

11. 1 c; 2 a; 3 d; 4 b

OBITUARIES

1. William Boot, the hapless reporter in Evelyn Waugh's Scoop.

2. Alan Coren

3. Trying to dissect a grenade after stealing it from an army depot.

4. Liz Claiborne

5. Jean Baudrillard

6. Ingmar Bergman

7. Sophie Dahl

8. They were wild monkeys.

9. Kurt Vonnegut

10. Alex, the African grey parrot, the subject of animal-language studies.

11. The Bill

12. Eve Curie

PARLIAMENT

1. Caroline Flint and David Cameron

2. Lembit Opik

3. A brown leather bomber jacket

4. Myrna Bushell of Bideford Town Council in Devon

5. The right of MPs to queue-jump ahead of administrative staff in the Houses of Parliament.

6. They all did.

7. Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson

8. George Osborne

9. George Galloway

10. 18-year-old Emily Benn

11. Four

PRIZEWINNERS

1. Rajiv Chandrasekaran for Imperial Life in the Emerald City

2. David Chipperfield Architects for the Museum of Modern Literature, Marbach

3. Philip Pullman for Northern Lights

4. Tuya's Marriage

5. Klaxons for Myths of the Near Future

6. Tracey Emin

7. Willy, a Tibetan terrier

8. Sian Lloyd and Lee Mead

9. Steve McClaren, for the following penetrating analysis of Wayne Rooney: "He is inexperienced, but he's experienced in terms of what he's been through."

10. Allendale, Northumberland

QUOTES

1. Helen Mirren, on receiving her best actress Oscar for The Queen.

2. Doris Lessing, on winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.

3. Keith Richards

4. Beth Ditto, lead singer of The Gossip

5. Tommy Sheridan, on winning his defamation case against the News of the World.

6. Jeremy Paxman

7. Barack Obama, on discovering he is distantly related to Dick Cheney.

8. Jordan, on her new baby Princess Tiaamii.

9. Des Browne, defence secretary, after allowing the Royal Navy sailors captured in Iran to sell their stories to the tabloid press.

10. Boris Johnson, when asked about the Tory reshuffle in June.

11. I'm a Celebrity... flirt Marc Bannerman on emerging from the jungle.

SOCIETY

1. 1 b; 2 a; 3 c

2. Cambodia, Ethiopia and Vietnam

3. Jigsaw

4. The Oscars goody bag

5. 1 (Geri) c; 2 (Emma) a; 3 (Mel B) b

6. a) John Terry; b) Claude Makelele; c) Jermain Defoe

7. Kerry Katona

8. Each has fathered a child by Ulrika Jonsson.

9. As celebrity blogger Perez Hilton

10. As the scene of Anna Nicole Smith's death

SPORT

1. Jeremy Bates

2. Jason Robinson, Ben Kay and Phil Vickery

3. Canada

4. c

5. Lasith Malinga

6. The coldest playing conditions recorded in England (7C)

7. Jeev Milkha Singh

8. Gullit (or, as it later emerged, Leya)

9. Tyson Gay and Derrick Atkins

10. The 2005 French Open; Rafael Nadal won.

THE STAGE

1. His son, Ed

2. Nicholas Hytner

3. Patrick Stewart

4. JRR Tolkien

5. They all won leading roles in West End musicals through TV competitions in 2007 (Grease is the Word, Any Dream Will Do).

6. Lily Allen's sibling Alfie

7. Take That

8. Zandra Rhodes

THE YEAR IN FIGURES

1 c; 2 f; 3 d; 4 a; 5 i; 6 e; 7 b; 8 j; 9 h; 10 g

Whitaker's Almanack 2008 is usually priced at 40. To buy a copy for 36, free p&p, call Independent Books Direct on 08700 798 897 or visit www.independentbooksdirect.co.uk