The questions
1 Which writer had a childhood doll called She-who-must-be-obeyed?
2 In which Asian country is high-altitude mountaineering banned?
3 What is assessed by the Martindale rub test?
4 Which woman founded the Second Order of Saint Francis?
5 Which director has made more money from wine than his films?
6 What took Ellen MacArthur 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds?
7 The UN headquarters was built on land donated by which family?
8 The only blue plaque in Barking celebrates which footballer?
What links:
9 Al-Idrisi; Behaim; D’Anville; Mercator; Ptolemy?
10 Bong; farang; tom yam; tuk-tuk; wai; wat?
11 Pluto; Ceres; Haumea; Makemake; Eris?
12 Grain crops; mayflies; octopus; salmon; squid; spiders?
13 Dick Powell; Humphrey Bogart; Elliott Gould; Robert Mitchum?
14 Enron; Theranos; Wirecard; WorldCom?
15 Cardinals; Giants; Kings; Panthers; Rangers?
The answers
1 H Rider Haggard.
2 Bhutan.
3 Upholstery fabrics (durability).
4 Saint Clare of Assisi (Poor Clares).
5 Francis Ford Coppola.
6 Sailing around the world.
7 Rockefeller.
8 Bobby Moore.
9 Cartographers.
10 Thai words (in the OED).
11 Dwarf planets.
12 Semelparous (reproduce only once, in certain species).
13 Played Philip Marlowe on screen.
14 Companies involved in fraud scandals.
15 Big US sports teams that share names: Arizona and St Louis; San Francisco and New York; LA and Sacramento; Florida and Carolina; New York and Texas.
