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Fact or Fool?

It’s April Fools’ Day so I thought I’d test your ability to spot the facts from the fools.

Five of the following statements are true, five have been invented by me.

EDITED 2nd April: I’ve now included the answers. How many did you get right?

Charles Dickens once had his clothes ripped off by fans.

TRUE! He is apparently the only author who has had his clothes ripped off by fans!

David Mitchell spent one month shearing sheep in Australia.

FALSE! He has travelled around a lot, but I invented this one.

Haruki Murakami used to run a jazz club.

TRUE! Murakami ran a jazz club until 1981 – it was called Peter Cat. This page contains many more Murakami facts that are well worth browsing.

D.H. Lawrence could play the trombone

FALSE!

H.G. Wells married his grandmother.

FALSE! He actually married his cousin!

Marilynne Robinson has a pet snake called Jake.

FALSE!

Chris Cleave grew up in Cameroon.

TRUE! He went to a French school in Cameroon.

Stephanie Meyer has a black belt in karate.

FALSE!

The man who registered José Saramago’s birth was drunk and so wrote his name and date of birth down incorrectly.

TRUE! I discovered this when researching a blog post about him last year. He is a fascinating man!

J.K Rowling once taught English in Portugal.

TRUE! She moved there and in 1992, she married Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese television journalist.

 

Happy April Fools’ Day!

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