麻豆社

The RBQ league table for the current series, going into today's contest, looks like this.
1聽 Wales聽 聽 Played 3聽 Won 2聽 Drawn 0聽 Lost 1聽 Total points 59
2聽 North of England聽 聽P3聽 W2聽 D0聽 L1聽 Pts 58
3聽 South of England聽 聽P2聽 W1聽 D1聽 L0聽 Pts 37
4聽 Midlands聽 聽P3聽 W1聽 D0聽 L2聽 Pts 55
5聽 Scotland聽 P3聽 W1聽 D0聽 L2聽 Pts 51
6聽 Northern Ireland聽 P2聽 W0聽 D1聽 L1聽 Pts 36

At the end of the previous programme Tom asked:
Which Nobel laureate's legacy includes a Biblical love lyric, a doll intended to trap a rabbit, a superlatively-coloured facial feature and an entire musical genre?
Well done if you spotted that these are all clues to novels by the late Toni Morrison (1931-2019).
The Biblical love lyric is The Song of Solomon (a Morrison novel dating from 1977).
The doll is the Tar Baby, a reference to the Uncle Remus story in which the devious Br'er Fox uses a doll made of tar and turpentine to entangle the unsuspecting Br'er Rabbit. Tar Baby is a 1981 novel by Morrison.
The facial feature is The Bluest Eye (1970).
Finally the entire musical genre is Jazz, which was the title of the second novel in the so-called Beloved Trilogy (published in 1992).

Q1聽 A chronicler of the deeds of kings and bishops; a logician and theologian with a razor-sharp intellect; and a travelling detective on a mission to a scriptorium. Where does each of them come from, and what do they have in common?
Q2 (from Roland Howell)聽 Why would a device borne by Gawain, an area overlooked by Tom Tower and a percussion instrument interest a tribe from Schleswig-Holstein?
Q3聽 (Music)聽 How did the last of these bring the others together, and then finish them off?
Q4聽 Which malicious character in a Norwegian folk tale might be pleased to hear the sounds of a visitor to the village of Killaloe in east County Clare, a comedy double act's Angora Love, and Muriel who read the Commandments?
Q5 (from Tom Chilton)聽 How could a notorious nuclear power station, an often-unflattering photograph and a 17th century Protestant sect all be regarded as gullible?
Q6 (Music - from Howard Spendlove)聽 Why might these voices suggest a place of safety which lost ground to an imitator?
Q7聽 Explain why Pennywise, the Psammead and Elinor Glyn's heroine might all be feeling rather neutral?
Q8 (from Joe Houlihan)聽 If a legendary Brazilian racing driver picks up a truncheon and gets behind the wheel of an old-fashioned police van, drives to a racecourse where the 2,000 Guineas is being held, then visits a farm where they breed racehorses - who would supply the drugs?聽

Why might you find Beth Ditto, Harry Angstrom and a member of the Monkees at a castle in County Cork?
Don't write to us: there are no prizes, but you can find out if your answer matches ours at the beginning of the next edition.