Michelle Pauli 

Women spies in fiction

As Anna Chapman faces accusations of espionage in the US, test your knowledge of female agents throughout literature
  
  


  1. Helen Fielding's first post-Bridget Jones novel featured an accidental spy called Olivia Joules. What was her day job?

    1. Make-up artist

    2. Welder/dancer

    3. Freelance journalist

    4. Actress

  2. What is Modesty Blaise's weapon of choice?

    1. A bongo

    2. A machete

    3. A kongo

    4. A slingshot

  3. What was the name of the radical leftwing English actor, allegedly based on Vanessa Redgrave, who features as an Israeli double agent in John Le Carré's Little Drummer Girl?

    1. Charlie

    2. Christie

    3. Jamie

    4. Georgie

  4. Ian Rankin's British intelligence agent Dominic Elder has a scar on his back as a result of his encounters with a female agent/assassin. What is it?

    1. A lightning bolt

    2. The Venus symbol

    3. A small dolphin

    4. A W for "witch"

  5. Former director general of MI5 Stella Rimington, has written a series of novels starring a female intelligence officer. Where is her latest book, Present Danger, set?

    1. Iraq

    2. Uzbekistan

    3. Northern Ireland

    4. Isle of Wight

  6. In Michael Frayn's Spies, who does the narrator, as a boy, suspect of being a German spy?

    1. His mother

    2. His friend's mother

    3. The local postmistress

    4. His teacher

  7. Robert Wilson's second world war thriller The Company of Strangers features an English mathematician and spy called Andrea Aspinall. She falls in love with a German double agent. Where do they meet?

    1. London

    2. Lisbon

    3. Geneva

    4. Paris

  8. In Our Man in Havana, when Beatrice Severn arrives from London to take over James Wormold's contacts, which does she request first?

    1. The radio operator

    2. The pilot

    3. The bartender

    4. The doctor

Solutions

1:C, 2:C, 3:A, 4:D, 5:C, 6:B, 7:B, 8:B

Scores

  1. 3 and above.

    "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now ..."

  2. 5 and above.

    Ah, Ms Bond ... I've been expecting you. Did you write your answers in invisible ink?

  3. 8 and above.

    Ssshhhhh! Expose insider knowledge like that and you'll blow your cover.

 

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