Arthur Conan Doyle, The Firm of Girdlestone. One successful identification (although not the book itself, which is very obscure). Other suggestions were Frank Richards, Germaine Greer on Jonny Wilkinson (not entirely seriously) and that well-known sporting correspondent Proust.
2. There is another Custom prevailing in Mahometan Countries...
Ronald Knox, Essays in Satire. Nobody got this, and it was generally dated much earlier, as Persian letters translated into mock Swift, Addison (twice) or Johnson.
3. It reminded me of one of those forgotten little stations in the Karroo.
John Buchan, The thirty-nine steps. Four people got this, and a fifth after the hint. It was also attributed to Flann O'Brien and Evelyn Waugh.
4. Academics customarily possess such a gift for subtle reasoning and fine distinctions...
D.J. Enright, Memoirs of a mendicant professor. Two people thought it was Chesterton, but there were no other suggestions, and it was not tracked down until the rather generous hint appeared.
5. Is there any chance of a post in Baghdad?
Agatha Christie, They came to Baghdad. One person got it before the hint, and one after. It was also blamed on Beryl Bainbridge, Evelyn Waugh, Wodehouse, and (in the light of the hint) Baghdad Sketches, by Freya Stark.
6. Mais faites vos jeux...
W.S. Gilbert, The Grand Duke. A toughie this, as the roulette song is not always used in performance. There was a natural wrong identification from two people, namely of Prévost's Manon Lescaut, or alternatively Massanet's version. The hint finally gave it away.
7. Don't you think there might be a link between maths and tragedy?
Denis Guedj, The parrot's theorem. Another French parrot, and not Flaubert's. Nobody got this (too obscure?) but Shaw and La philosophie de Cantona were interesting wrong suggestions.
8. He would often complain that Algebra... was too much admired...
John Aubrey, Brief Lives (Hobbes). Two people got this before the hint, and two after, although one of the latter thought he might be talking about Wren. Other ideas were Pepys, Locke and Foxe's Book of Martyrs (no, not seriously).
9. It is a paper you cannot make head nor tail of...
H.G. Wells, The food of the gods. Complete and utter failure all round. No candidates attempted this question.
10. But it's as well to be a woman as a man...
D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers. One of the few things I learnt about D.H. Lawrence at school was that he was not the same as T.E. Lawrence, who called himself Shaw to avoid confusion. One person identified the quotation correctly, and another thought it was a transation of Colette.
11. But great things spring from little...
Byron, Don Juan. Three people got this and there was really nobody else it could have been (it could not even have been by Ron (who he?)).
This year's prize goes to Virginia Knight, on the grounds of an avalanche of good ideas after the hints appeared, as well as several beforehand. Honourable mentions go to George Russell, Alasdair Grant and Miranda Mowbray, who were not so far behind. Other fairly honourable people will not be mentioned.
Jonathan Partington, 28.3.04