English PEN Quiz 2013

Here are a few snaps from last week's English PEN quiz, held at RIBA and hosted by Clive Anderson. We Brain Men get involved by writing the quiz and twiddling the technical knobs, ensuring that 250 writers, authors, literary agents and journos have a splendid evening, and empty their wallets for a good cause.

This year's winners were The Telegraph, scoring a whopping 60 out of 70, with The Guardian/Observer and The Literary Review both narrowly pipped to second place on 59.

Hardeep Is Your Quiz?

Broadcaster and comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli was the quizmaster for this year's Four Colman Getty English PEN Quiz, now in its 11th year and one of the highlights of the pre-Christmas season. The questions were devised by our very own Marcus Berkmann, with further Brain Men back-up running the big electronic scoreboard.

240 journalists, writers, authors, publishers and PR people enjoyed a fantastic dinner six spectacular rounds at The Royal Institute of British Architects in Portland Place, culminating in one of the tightest results we've had. The Daily Telegraph and The Times drew for first place, and drew again on the tie-break! A second tie-break was called into play, with Education Secretary Michael Gove, representing The Times, pipping the opposition to the answer.

Who's A Naughtie Boy Then?

Radio 4 Today presenter James Naughtie (also famed for his on air spoonerisms) fronted up our annual quiz for English PEN last night at the Royal Institute of British Architects.

There wasn't a Jeremy Hunt in sight, although Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, was on the Times team.

Top three scores on the doors, in what is designed to be one of our toughest quizzes of the year, were: The Agile Agents (A P Watt) (64/75), The Telegraph (63/75) and The Times (63/75). Bottom of the heap of 23 teams were Bloomberg (34/75).

Congratulations to everyone who took part - tons of money was raised for English PEN (which does splendid work campaigning for press freedom around the world) through ticket sales, joker rounds and new membership sign-ups.

Kelkoo Coo Over Our Journalists' Quiz

We've had some great feedback from Kelkoo, the price comparison people, following the dinner quiz we designed for national journalists in London on Thursday. It's the second year Kelkoo have hired us for this key event in their PR calendar.

Kelkoo spokeswoman Laura McDonnell writes: 'Just a note to let you know that last night’s quiz was another roaring success! All went smoothly, and the host Iain Lee got to grips really well with the questions. Everyone was happy with the level too – challenging enough for the ones who took it more seriously, but with enough in there to keep the more laid back teams happy, and to keep everyone’s interest.'

Winners were the Telegraph... they've got a table at Monday's Colman Getty PEN Quiz too, so they're clearly Brain Men fans!