The questions

1 Which PM said: “When I want to read a novel I write one”?
2 The Three Counties system is a 55-mile network of what?
3 Which British zoo has two giant pandas?
4 Whose priestesses took a 30-year vow of chastity?
5 The Dayak people are indigenous to which island?
6 Which organ is nearly 60% fat?
7 The USS St Lo was the first major warship sunk by what method?
8 Which “uncrowned king of Ireland” died in 1891?
What links:
9
Cheshire cat; Griffin; One Ring wearers; Susan Storm?
10 Pliny; Cato; Pieter Bruegel; William Pitt?
11 Marilyn Monroe; Billie Jean King; Maxine Feibelman; Guy Burchett?
12 Sinopec; Rosneft; Petrobras; Saudi Aramco?
13 .ai; .bm; .fk; .gi; .ky; .ms; .tc?
14 The Playboy of the Western World; Peter Pan;
Disgrace?
15 Talkative starling; digs for coal or gold; under 18?

Flying high with the starling clue? Photograph: Javier Belver/EPA

The answers

1 Disraeli.
2 Caves (North Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria).
3 Edinburgh.
4 Vesta (Vestal Virgins).
5 Borneo.
6 Brain.
7 Kamikaze attack (1944).
8 Charles Stewart Parnell.
9 Characters who can turn invisible: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; The Invisible Man; The Lord of the Rings; Fantastic Four comics.
10 The Elder and the Younger.
11 Inspired Elton John (and Bernie Taupin) songs: Candle in the Wind; Philadelphia Freedom; Tiny Dancer; Song for Guy.
12 State-owned oil companies: China; Russia; Brazil; Saudi Arabia.
13 Internet domains of British overseas territories: Anguilla; Bermuda; Falklands; Gibraltar; Cayman Islands; Montserrat; Turks and Caicos Islands.
14 Works by JM authors: Synge; Barrie; Coetzee.
15 Homophones: mynah; miner; minor.

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