“Page 99” and quiz
(Sorry, all those Beatles fans who loved it — I’m one of you normally, but not this time) there are actually a couple of mildly interesting facts and none of the pretentious socio-politico-cultural-zeitgeist up-his-own-arsery with which MacDonald plasters just about every other page in the book.How do your favourite books (and your least-favourite ones, for that matter) respond to the Page 99 Test? I learned about it, incidentally, from Silvia Crompton, an editor at Random House. She uses the test herself ‘when I’m not sure whether or not to buy a book. For reading, that is – not publishing.’ (Reassuring that such high standards are still upheld.)
Finally, a Page 99 quiz for you. The following are extracts from that page in three well-known British novels – which three?
1) To Elizabeth it appeared, that had her family made an agreement to expose themselves as much as they could during the
"It's impossible to make the bastards reply to a straight question," he once said. Bored by what he called the "sonorous drivel" of politicians, he revelled in the role of quizmaster on such long-running shows as Radio 4's Brain of Britain, where,
It's impossible to hear Lovato's trembling yet defiant vocal on the chorus hook without hearing this song as her personal "I Will Survive" in the face of the kiddie-pop backlash that greeted her personal troubles. In the column she now writes for