Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A story that grew out of family life

Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women in two parts, and the novel draws heavily on her own upbringing in Massachusetts alongside her three sisters. The March family's struggles with money, ambition and independence mirror the Alcotts' own experiences, which is part of why the book still feels so immediate. It has been adapted for stage and screen many times, most recently in Greta Gerwig's 2019 film.

When the heavyweight division changed hands

Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history in 1986, at the age of 20, and his ferocious early career made him one of the most recognisable athletes on the planet. His later years brought legal troubles and a comeback, and he officially retired from professional boxing in 2005. Muhammad Ali, by contrast, had already hung up his gloves in 1981, while Joe Frazier retired even earlier, in 1976.

The island with the smallest population density

Greenland is the world's largest island that is not a continent, yet fewer than 60,000 people live there. Most of its surface is covered by an ice sheet, and settlements cling to the narrow coastal strips. It is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, and its name, famously, was a piece of early marketing by the Norse settler Erik the Red.

A composer who reshaped the modern musical

Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the music for The Phantom of the Opera, which opened in London in 1986 and on Broadway in 1988. The show went on to become one of the longest-running musicals in Broadway history. Lloyd Webber's other credits include Cats, Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar, making him one of the most commercially successful theatre composers of all time.

A natural border between nations

The Pyrenees form a natural boundary between Spain and France, and the tiny principality of Andorra sits between them in the mountains. That makes three countries sharing the range. The Alps, by comparison, stretch across eight countries, while the Rockies run through Canada and the United States.