Mostly Bookbrains 2015 - Charity Literary Quiz in Abingdon

It's the most eagerly-awaited, hotly-contested contest of the year. And not a sequin in sight...

Yes, the ‘Mostly Bookbrains’ Charity Literary Quiz takes place on Friday, Feb 6 at The Manor School, starting at 7.30pm. We're looking for teams of book lovers to pit their wits against each other, competing to be named 'Mostly Bookbrain 2015'!

The focus of the quiz is very much on the ‘fun’ side of things - and of course raising lots of money for a local charity. This year it is the Footsteps Foundation and we want to raise as much money as possible for them. We are looking for team entries of up to eight people, and tickets are £7 per person in advance. As in previous years, there will be a bar, and the bookswap table – so if you did get an unwanted book for Christmas, now’s your chance to swap it for your next favourite read.

It really is huge fun, so if you, your work colleagues, your bookgroup or your family and friends fancy taking part, please email us to reserve a table as soon as possible. All questions are on a bookish theme – but there is something for everyone and it’s an enjoyable way to raise lots of money for a very worthwhile cause.

To reserve your ticket or team table, call 01235 525880, call in at the shop or email books@mostly-books.co.uk

And the winners of Mostly Bookbrains for 2012 are...

We first held our Mostly Bookbrains Literary Quiz back in November 2009, repeated it in 2010 - and then last year, deciding that November is far too busy and insane a period to try to hold a big quiz - we shifted it to February. It seems to been a popular move, as a record 100 people braved the chilly weather and packed into The Manor School Hall to do battle and be crowned "Mostly Bookbrains 2012".

The literary quiz was incredibly well supported: 14 teams competed to pit their collective wits on questions from the most recent chair of the Booker judges, to the name of the author of 'The Borrowers'.

This year we had rounds asking for identification of book illustrators, a Dickens round (of course) and the one that everyone seemed to score  highest on:  'name the book title from the following blurb'. The standard was incredibly high, but winning the entire contest and holding the prestigious Mostly Bookbrains trophy for this year were the 'Quiller Couches'. Well done to them for consistently high scoring throughout the whole evening.

Second were the 'Secret Seven' (pleased to see so many school librarians on that team). The 'Wednesday Wonders' also took home prizes as winner of the interval 'marathon' round.

But the winners of the evening were also the two local charities - The Abingdon Alzheimer's Club and SeeSaw Oxfordshire, which provides support for bereaved children and their families. Both charities were brilliantly supported by everyone's efforts on the evening. With entrance tickets, refreshments, book swap table and raffle together, over £900 was raised.

A big thank you must go to Judy Harris and her team from Abingdon Alzheimers who kept the bar open all evening and provided tasty refreshments to keep everyone's brains fed on a busy Friday evening. Thanks to them for all their hard work.

Thanks to Manor School for providing the venue free of charge for the third year running. And, as always, a big thank you to Annabel Gaskell for setting such a wide range of book-related questions and being quiz master and general organiser of the whole evening.

We have had some great feedback - and wonderful to meet book bloggers Yvann and Simon who were taking part. We certainly hope to see many of you again to take up the challenge next year. And yes, we promise to make the questions even more difficult (only kidding).