06-07-2025
My 20 years as The Times's questionable quiz master
The story of my setting the Times Daily Quiz begins with journalistic failure. I had made several faux pas as a graduate trainee, including but certainly not limited to being the worst diary reporter in the history of this newspaper, meaning that I would not have my contract renewed.
However, I was given several freelance jobs to cushion the blow of the news desk wanting nothing to do with me, one of these being taking on the existing Times2 quiz. Previously it had been anonymously compiled, with many a repeat question. As someone who had steered The Times to victory at the prestigious PEN quiz, I was given the job of remoulding it.
I thought that a display of QI-style general knowledge prowess would impress the readers. I included things like the origin of the name of the Harrington jacket (a character in the TV show Peyton Place). But I was wrong: the scathing complaints poured in, asking what the hell this obscure garbage was. I had forgotten one of life's immutable rules: people hate change.
