The questions
1 Which diarist debuted in The Independent in 1995?
2 What are euro banknotes made from?
3 Which county adopted St Petroc’s Cross as its flag?
4 Which company buys about 15% of the UK’s annual potato crop?
5 What name is given to zero electrical resistance?
6 Pig farmer and businessman Jim Watkins is claimed to be behind which conspiracy theory?
7 Which singer is the Dowager Countess of Plauen?
8 In what decade was the last prosecution under the Witchcraft Act?
What links:
9 Platypus; short-tailed shrew; slow loris; solenodon; vampire bat?
10 Kohs Block; Miller Analogies; Turing; Wonderlic?
11 Notting Hill; You’ve Got Mail; 84 Charing Cross Road?
12 Mukden incident; Gleiwitz incident; Gulf of Tonkin incident?
13 Rome; Viterbo; Orvieto; Avignon; Castel Gandolfo; Vatican City?
14 Rolling Stones; Lady Gaga; Judas Priest; Boyz II Men; Deacon Blue?
15 Strangeways prison; Holborn Bars; Girton College; Eaton Hall?
The answers
1 Bridget Jones.
2 Cotton.
3 Devon.
4 McCain.
5 Superconductivity.
6 QAnon.
7 Anni-Frid from Abba.
8 1940s.
9 Venomous mammals.
10 Intelligence tests.
11 Films centred on bookshops.
12 War pretexts/false flag operations: Japanese invasion of Manchuria; Nazi invasion of Poland; US and Vietnam war.
13 Locations of papal palaces.
14 Acts named after other musicians’ songs: Muddy Waters; Queen; Bob Dylan; New Edition; Steely Dan.
15 Designed by Alfred Waterhouse.
