3. Physics – Who is your favourite scientifically minded character from a book/film?

Mark Watney from The Martian by Andy Weir.  If you’ve read this book then you pretty much know why I’ve picked Mark.  This is one guy who knows how to survive in the harshest of conditions.

4. Biology – Who is your favourite book/film/series character?

My stock answer to this would be Jean Tannen from Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastard series.  I love that guy!  Plus he likes books so come on people.  Just to be a big cheater I’m also going to choose a wonderful female character in Wydrin from the Copper Promise by Jen Williams – because she makes me smile every time I read about her.

5. Chemistry – Who is your favourite literary couple?

I’m going to go for the romance of the moment, i.e. my most recent series – which has to be Toby and Tybalt, October Daye and The King of the Cats from the wonderful Seanan McGuire.

6. French – What is your favourite foreign book/film/programme?

My absolute favourite foreign film is The Intouchables.  I love this movie, love it.  And, it’s all the more surprising because I wasn’t so sure.  If I was going to cheat and chuck in a couple more I would have to say a whole bunch of the Ghibli films – but particularly My Neighbour Totoro, or how about Amelie.

7. Art – Have you ever judged a book by its cover, even if you weren’t meant to?!

I have to say that I do tend to judge a book by it’s cover – but, in my defence (1) the cover is the first thing you see.  (2) it tells you who the author is  (3) it gives you a little blurb that usually provides the final nudge (4) there are some fantastic book covers out there (4) I just like covers – don’t judge me.  Also, I’m happy to say that I’ve read a number of books where I didn’t like the cover and loved the books – the content is what I’m after at the end of the day but the cover is the hook

.  A cover wouldn’t stop me from reading a book if I wanted to read it – it’s just when you’re browsing, the cover is the first thing that draws your eye.  And, more to the point, book covers are a whole other part of the industry and a lot of them are like works of art.  I love that.  I love the attention and detail that goes into book covers.

8. History – What was the last historical book you read?

This is an unusual one – because, rather than going for the usual sumptuous dresses and court dramas with kings and queens I’m actually going to choose a western:

1. True Grit by Charles Portis – a great book.  Who knew that I liked books of this style.

9. Drama – What’s a book that you think has a lot of over-dramatic hype?

Gilded Cage by Vic James.  This book was definitely a book that I was longing to read.  It didn’t quite turn out the way I hoped, I had a lot of questions about the world building, but I figure it’s aimed at a younger audience and it worked for a lot of other people.  So, at the end of the day, you can’t please all the people all the time.

10. Geography – Which literary destination would you really like to visit? (They can be real or fictional!)

Let’s be honest a lot of the places I read about are pretty bloody violent.  If I could step in and visit them (haha – unnoticed – coward much?) then maybe.  Otherwise, I’m going to say Hogwarts – although now I think about it, apart from ‘he who shouldn’t be mentioned’, his army of followers, three headed dogs, trolls, whomping willows and other challenges involving dragons – well, okay, even the schools can be dangerous..