1. The Fields Medal has in recent times been awarded to its first woman, Maryam Mirzakhani in 2014, and was infamously rejected by Russian Grigori Perelman in 2006. Which academic discipline is this prize awarded for?

2. Whose art exhibition at Tate Britain this year has become the fastest selling show in the gallery’s history?

3. The first national park designated in the UK was the Peak District in 1951. Announced as a national park in 2009 and formed in 2010, which is the latest English addition to this list?

4. University Challenge inspired the novel Starter for Ten. Who is its English author?

Roger Federer ... who did he beat in the 2003 Wimbledon final? Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images

5. Roger Federer secured a record 18th grand slam tennis title this year at the Australian Open. Which Australian, nicknamed the “Scud”, did he beat at Wimbledon in 2003 to win his first grand slam?

6. Combine the periodic table symbols for the chemical elements neon, tungsten, hydrogen and americium in consecutive order. This spells out the name of which London borough?

7. What links these former prime minsters: the British Spencer Perceval, the Lebanese Rafic Hariri and the Indian Indira Gandhi?

Aldous Huxley ... what year did he, CS Lewis and JFK die? Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

8. Narnia author CS Lewis, Brave New World author Aldous Huxley and former US president John F Kennedy all died on 22 November. Which year was this?

9. Which north European country’s flag is the oldest existing flag in the world? It is supposed to have fallen out of the heavens during a battle in the 13th century.

10. The first square number is 1 (1x1). Placing the 1st, 3rd and 7th square number beside each other in that respective order gives a calendar year. Which international organisation, headquartered in Brussels, was founded in that year?

11. Lord Sankey served as lord chancellor during the second premiership of Ramsay MacDonald. In a judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Counsel, he likened the Canadian constitution to what lifeform?

William Shakespeare ... which monarch was ‘bought and sold’? Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

12. According to Shakespeare, a military commander received a note informing him to “be not so bold. For ... thy master is bought and sold”. Which English monarch was the commander’s master?

13. This heavenly object is thought to result from an event seen by Chinese observers in 1054. Containing a pulsar, what is located in the area of the constellation Taurus?

14. This word was frequently used in the description of Solomon’s temple in 1 Kings. Spelled differently, which word can also be used to describe a unit of information in computer science?

Ottawa ... coldest capital? Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

15. Residents of Ottawa sometimes claim that a phenomenon called the “polar vortex” renders their city the coldest national capital in the world. Which Asian city usually claims the title of coldest national capital?

16. Though more famous for earlier cultural practices, people living in which locale once partook in an egg hunt as part of a “birdman cult”?

To Sir, With Love ... who wrote it? Photograph: Allstar/Columbia

17. This man wrote, produced and directed To Sir, With Love, starring Sidney Poitier. He was also famous for writing a series of loosely connected novels about “the history of the Anglo-Saxon involvement in Asia”. Who was he?

18. A classmate of Dr Norman Bethune, this man received the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. The man also received a letter from a boy who benefited from his discovery, stating, “I am a fat boy now and I feel fine. I can climb a tree.” Name him.

19. This empire, located in the Sahel, was once ruled by Askia the Great. Which empire collapsed following the 1591 Battle of Tondibi?

20. Possibly deriving its name from a colloquial French term for a hobby horse, what is the name of the early 20th-century artistic movement with centres in Zurich, New York and Paris?

