Books, beers, banter and British pubs: The Hamilton Book Month Pub Quiz is BACK!
A year ago, I entered a team in the annual Hamilton Book Month Literary Pub Quiz. We came last, with a prize of a box of books. After nursing my wounds, I decided to go again and reached out to the Quizmaster, Richard Swainson.
Richard and his wife, Janine, have run the annual Literary Pub Quiz for over 6 years at their local pub, The Londoner, located on Victoria Street. They are planning to confound me again – with the latest set of questions at this year’s Book Month Pub quiz on August 29.
The pair write and ask the questions themselves, though Swainson claims he’d rather participate. The quiz has a series of themed rounds including Children’s literature, Shakespeare and a Who Am I?
They also run weekly Believe It Or Not quizzes at the English themed pub on Wednesday nights. When he’s not working as a Quizmaster, Swainson runs Auteur House – Hamilton’s last DVD rental store. He also participates in film quizzes competitively and does freelance journalism.
“It’s not necessarily about winning, but it’s the challenge of being able to tap into some knowledge that you know is next to useless in any other context.”
Richard swainson
Swainson’s first Quizmaster role was for Auteur House’s 8-and-a-half birthday. Naturally the subject matter was film, but some of his questions received some backlash.
“When it comes to film stuff, I’ve got a little bit of a bad habit of assuming people perhaps know a little bit more than they do.”
Since this first outing, Swainson claims to have learnt from overindulging in his passion, though the Book Month Quiz still contains elements of film with Swainson insisting on a “film adaptation” round.
“There’s a certain irony in me – as a film person – writing questions for a literary quiz, because it’s not an obvious match up with Auteur House.”
With our everchanging society, quizzes have had to change too. Last year, Janine devised a new round; “BookTok” focusing on popular TikTok book trends. Alas, the round saw little success and will not return in 2024.
So that being said, come along to The Londoner on August 29… with luck, we won’t lose this time and instead, you’ll win the box of books.
Registration and more may be found on Hamilton Book Month’s website.
