Big English Battle 2024

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He was also described as being introverted and solitary, as he
often preferred to work alone. Additionally, he was known for
his humility and dedication to his work, as well as his strong
sense of independence and originality in his thinking.
Isaac Newton
She tends to be humble, hard-
working, and enthusiastic.
Agatha Christie
 Taking Risks And Learning From Failure.
Among his leadership attributes, perhaps the greatest was his willingness to take risks.
Decisiveness.
Clear and Simple Communication.
Commitment to Self-Improvement.
Management of People.
Sir Winston Churchill
 He was also known to be compassionate and kind-
hearted, with a deep love for nature and a keen sense
of curiosity about the world around him. His
personality traits contributed to his ability to observe
and analyze the natural world, leading to his
groundbreaking theories on evolution and natural
selection.
Charles Darwin
He is a genial observer of mankind, a storyteller, as well as a satirist,
one whose satire is usually without real bite. He is also a reformer,
but he is foremost a celebrator of life who comments shrewdly on
human absurdities while being, at the same time, a lover of mankind.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Warmhearted and lively, she had a gift for drawing
and painting; educated by a governess at home, she
was a natural diarist and kept a regular journal
throughout her life. On William IV's death in 1837,
she became Queen at the age of 18.
Queen Victoria
He was indeed honest, and of an open and free nature;
had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle
expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility that
sometime it was necessary he should be stopped. His
wit was in his own power: would the rule of it had
been so too. But he redeemed his vices with his
virtues.
William Shakespeare
 He is the best loved Scottish poet, admired not only
for his verse and great love-songs, but also for his
character, his high spirits, 'kirk-defying', hard drinking
and womanising! He came to fame as a poet when he
was 27 years old, and his lifestyle of wine, women and
song made him famous all over Scotland.
Robert Burns
 When considering his “enormous personality”
– obsessive, cruel, kind, conceited yet oddly gullible –
nature and nurture prove hard to disentangle. Despite
his intelligence and a middle-class home, teenage he
was a troublemaker at school, and lazy with it, leaving
without qualifications.
John Lennon
 The man differed little from the lad; his form was
vigourous, his limbs shapely, his knees firmly knit, his
arms muscular and round, his hands large, tall and
sinewy, with coarse swarthy features
Robert Burns
 She was known for her petite stature and somber
appearance. She had a round face, a prominent chin,
and a fair complexion. She often wore black mourning
attire following the death of her husband.
Queen Victoria
She is the only crime writer to have created
two equally famous and much-loved
characters - Hercule Poirot and Miss
Marple.
Agatha Christie
She wrote six semi-autobiographical, bitter-
sweet novels under the pseudonym Mary
Westmacott. The fact that she was the
author remained a secret for almost 20
years.
Agatha Christie
In 2017, his song 'Imagine' was named
‘Song of the Century’ by the National
Music Publishers Association.
John Lennon
 HE WROTE HIS FIRST
POEM WHEN HE WAS 15
Robert Burns
Her favourite flower was
Lily of the Valley.
Agatha Christie
He invented the reflecting
telescope in 1668.
Isaac Newton
 Her likes included "“sunshine, apples, almost
any kind of music, railway trains, numerical
puzzles and anything to do with numbers,
“going to the sea, bathing and swimming,
silence, sleeping, dreaming, eating, the smell of
coffee, lilies of the valley, most dogs, and going
to the theatre.”
Agatha Christie
1. She was born on 24th May 1819 in London.
2. She became queen in 1837, aged 18.
3. She married Prince Albert in 1840. Sadly, Albert died in 1861 at just 42
years old. She was so upset by his death that she wore black clothing for the
rest of her life.
4. She had four sons and five daughters. The names of her children were
Victoria, Albert, Alice, Alfred, Helena, Louise, Arthur, Leopold and Beatrice.
5. She reigned for 63 years and 7 months. She reigned longer than any king
or queen before her.
6. She ruled a huge empire that spread around the world. The British Empire
was made up of lots of countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
India and Jamaica.
7. She was very small, only about 5ft tall.
Queen Victoria
How long did Victoria reign
for?
 She reigned for 64 years.
Queen Victoria was the Queen of England between 1837 and 1901.
Behind our Queen, Queen Elizabeth II, she is the second longest reigning monarch
of the United Kingdom.
Who was John Lennon?
 John Lennon was the leader or coleader of the
British rock group the Beatles, author and graphic
artist, solo recording artist, and collaborator with
Yoko Ono on recordings and other art projects.
 Why did Richard Nixon's
administration try to deport
John Lennon?
 In 1972, the Nixon administration
attempted to deport Lennon due to his
vocal and adamant opposition of the
Vietnam War.
When did John Lennon
die?
 John Lennon was shot to death by a
deranged fan, Mark David Chapman, in
front of his Manhattan apartment building
on December 8, 1980.
What was Robert Burns’s
first book of poetry?
 In July 1786 Robert Burns published
his first major volume of verse, Poems,
Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.
What is Robert Burns most
famous for?
One of Robert Burns’s best-known poems is the
mock-heroic “Tam o' Shanter,” published in
1791. He is also well known for his contribution
to over three hundred songs that celebrate love,
friendship, work, and drink with often hilarious
and tender sympathy, such as “Auld Lang Syne
.”
Why was Robert Burns
called the “Ploughman
Poet”?
Robert Burns was born into a farming family
and raised on a smallholding. This upbringing
earned him the name “Ploughman Poet” once
he began to be recognized for his poetry.
Birthplace of Robert Burns,
Alloway, South Ayrshire,
Scotland.
What is the longest word in
any of Shakespeare’s plays?
“Honorificabilitudinitatibus” is the longest
word in any of Shakespeare’s plays. It
means invincible glorious honorableness.
 Why will not people utter the
name of Macbeth in a theater
thinking it will bring bad luck?
 There are superstitions surrounding the
play Macbeth, and people will not utter that
name in a theater thinking it will bring bad
luck.

It is rumored that witches put a curse on the play Macbeth since they
claim it has a real spell written into the play.
When was the Globe theatre
built?
The Globe Theater was built in
1599.
How many films are made of
Romeo and Juliet?
There are 36 films made
of Romeo and Juliet.
 What day did not
Shakespeare’s performance
company perform?
Shakespeare’s performance company
did not perform on Sundays.
 Which is the shortest and
longest Shakespeare’s play?
Shakespeare’s shortest play is The Comedy
of Errors which is around 1,770 lines.
While his longest play is Hamlet which
has 4,042 lines.
What is Agatha Christie's
best selling book?
 And Then There Were None is the best-
selling crime novel of all time, and made
Agatha Christie the best-selling novelist,
according to the Agatha Christie Estate.
An apple never actually fell on
his head, didn’t it?
 This is actually a bit of a lie! Newton did
witness an apple falling from a tree one day
and this got him thinking about what
actually caused the apple to fall to the
ground.
Newton later developed his theory of Gravity, believing that Earth has a
force that pulls objects down, which prevents objects from aimlessly
floating around.
Isaac believed that Gravity attracted objects to one another which keeps
them grounded. Remember, the bigger the object, the more Gravity that
one object has. Newton kept developing this theory and eventually, he
claimed that Gravity was what kept the Moon in orbit around the Earth.
What did Newton discover?
 While we know that Isaac Newton discovered Gravity, he also made
many other scientific discoveries. Newton is also credited with
discovering the three laws of motion. The first law, otherwise known
as Inertia, is an item that is still and unmoving until a matter of force is
applied to it. A great example of this is a swing, it will hang unmoving
until a force is applied to it. The second law is that acceleration happens
when force is applied to an object. Taking the example of the swing, if
someone is sitting on the swing then it requires a greater force to cause
movement. The third law states, ‘for every action there is an equal
opposite reaction’. Isaac believed that forces worked in pairs when a
force is applied in one direction another comes back in the opposite
direction.
Newton’s cradle is a great example of the third law in practice. Newton
also made the discovery that light is made up of a spectrum of colour.
Isaac has his own special 50p,
hasn’t he?
 Interestingly, Isaac was actually the Master of the Royal Mint in 1699. The
Royal Mint is where all the money in the UK is made. Isaac came to the
Royal Mint’s rescue when one in ten coins that were circulating at the time
was found to be forged money. It’s thanks to Newton’s hard work and unique
vision that British money is so hard to forge even to this day. To recognise his
impact, in 2017 the Royal Mint released a unique 50p coin dedicated to Sir
Isaac Newton. The special coin was released 375 years after his birth.
 Woolsthorpe Manor in
Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, the
birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton
1. He was born premature and had little to no chance of survival. It was a Christmas
morning in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. Stephen Hawking was also from Lincolnshire,
born almost 300 years later.
2. He was born on 4 January 1643 [O.S. 25 December 1642], the same year, Galileo
died.
3. His father, who was a farmer, died three months before he was born. He was raised
by his grandmother after his mother remarried.
4. He hated his stepfather and threatened to burn his house down.
5. History tells that he was not a good student who would excel in studies. He had to
work as a servant to pay his bills and he liked to keep a journal of his ideas and
thoughts.
6. During his school-age years, he disliked poetry and literature and was fascinated
by technology and mechanics. He developed sundials which were very accurate.
7. He had written in his college notebooks about himself, “Making pies on Sunday
night… punching my sister… threatening my Father and Mother Smith to burn them
and the house over them.”
Isaac Newton
How many books did Agatha
Christie wrote in her lifetime?
 Novels- 74,
collections – 28,
poems – 3,
plays – 16,
as editor – 1,
broadcast works – 7, autobiography- 2
Sir Isaac Newton at Trinity College
Cambridge and in Madame Tussauds
museum, London, England.
Winston Churchill was a man
of his vices, wasn’t he?
Most of the iconic images of the British Bulldog usually feature a chunky cigar clutched
in his hand or in his grinning mouth, but smoking wasn’t his only vice.
Churchill absolutely loved a tipple!
The man himself once said that “hot baths, cold champagne, new peas and old brandy”
were the four essentials of life.
When he was in the military as a youngster, Churchill took 60 bottles of assorted alcohol –mostly comprised of his favorite
whiskey and brandy – with him when he shipped out to the Second Boer War in South Africa!
As you can imagine, Churchill wasn’t the greatest fan of prohibition in America either, describing it as “an affront to the
whole history of mankind”.
He even managed to get himself a Doctor’s note in 1932 which stated he could drink an ‘indefinite’ amount of alcohol
during his time in the States.
When Churchill was set to meet the Saudi King Abdulaziz in 1945, he was told he couldn’t drink in front of the King due to
the King’s religious beliefs.
Churchill, in his dry sense of non-humor humor that he was a renowned master of replied “my religion prescribed an
absolute sacred rite smoking cigars and drinking alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and the intervals
between them.”
 Sir Isaac Newton’s
notebook 1661 Image Credit
Did W.Churchill have a
speech impediment?
That’s right, one of history’s most renowned public speakers had a speech
impediment.
Churchill had what is known as a lateral lisp, and as such had trouble
pronouncing his “s” and “z” sounds.
In 1897, he sought help from Sir Felix Semen, a revered specialist in
speech difficulties, who simply told Churchill that he just needed to
practice to get over it.
So that’s what he did.
Although there was one word Churchill never quite got the hang of, and it
might have just been a little bit intentional.
He could never pronounce the word “Nazis” properly, instead saying
“Narzees”.
When did W.Churchill die?
 Winston Churchill was born on November 30, 1874,
and died on January 24, 1965, at the age of 90 after
suffering a severe stroke nine days earlier.
He was given the largest state funeral to ever happen in British history, with representatives from 112 nations attending
and 350 million Europeans, including 25 million British people, watching live on TV.

As Churchill’s coffin passed the River Thames, dockers working there all simultaneously lowered their cranes in a
beautiful impromptu salute.

The Royal Artillery fired a 19-gun salute and the RAF performed a fly-by with 16 English Electric Lightning fighter jets.

At his request, Churchill was buried in his family plot, a short distance from his birthplace at Blenheim Palace in
Oxfordshire.

Indicative of the Great Briton’s dry sense of humor, the epitaph on his tombstone reads:

“I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”
 She Was a Trained Pharmacist. Before she
became a successful author, Agatha Christie
worked as a dispenser and learned about
poisons and drugs, which later proved
useful in her writing.
She Was a Prolific Playwright.
She Mysteriously Disappeared for 11 Days.
Agatha Christie
Churchill didn’t like Gandhi
much. True or false?
Throughout his life, Churchill was a very outspoken Imperialist – believing that the British
Empire should retain hold of its colonies.
Especially so with India, being somebody who vehemently opposed any form of Indian
autonomy.
As such, Churchill was no fan of Gandhi – he publicly advocated for letting Gandhi die
during his hunger strike.
On St. George’s Day 1374, Edward III
granted Geoffrey Chaucer a gallon of
wine for every day for the rest of the
poet’s life, didn’t he?
 In the same year, Chaucer was made
comptroller (a sort of financial overseer or
manager) of London customs – a lucrative
and highly-sought position. His wine-
stipend lasted for just 4 years: shortly after
Edward III died in 1377 and Richard II
acceded to the throne, the wine allowance
was turned into a monetary stipend.
He had a big brain
 Burns’s skull was once measured
after his body had been exhumed. It
was found to be above average size.
Winston Churchill was an accomplished
artist and all-round creative, wasn’t he?
Churchill was, by all accounts, a rather sensitive soul who wasn’t afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve – often
being moved to tears in the House of Commons, or when giving speeches or receiving praise.

He was also a very artistic and creative person – being an avid painter, a journalist in his earlier years, and
an author throughout his entire life.

Churchill quite enjoyed painting impressionist landscapes and still lifes, and after the Great War, he befriended
painter Paul Maze, who was a big influence on him artistically.

The two remained friends and painting companions for the rest of their lives.

Churchill painted under the pseudonym “Charles Morin” and most of his surviving works can be seen at
Chartwell House in London.

He was also a serial writer throughout his life, having penned a novel, two biographies, three volumes of
memoirs, and several historical books.

Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 during his second term as Prime Minister “for
his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human
values”.

But despite that, he was absolutely not a Grammar Nazi – mocking the contentious grammar law of not ending
a sentence with prepositions by saying “That is nonsense, up with which I shall not put”!
W.Churchill got voted out before the end of
the Second World War.
True or alse?
True! This one might come as a shock to some, given that he’s often referred to as one of the “Best Britons”,
or when people talk about how he was Britain’s best wartime leader ever.

However, in July 1945, two months after Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender whilst war still raged on
in the Pacific, Britain had its first general election in over a decade – something which usually happens every
four or five years.

As anyone who knows anything about British politics will tell you, every political campaign is always
dripping in propaganda and this one was no different.

Thanks to the work of the opposing Labour Party, who managed to paint Churchill’s Conservative Party as
anti-worker and anti-welfare, Clement Attlee beat Churchill in a huge shock landslide.

Despite this, he took it all quite well, saying “They have a perfect right to kick us out. That is democracy.
That is what we have been fighting for.”

Despite losing his role as Prime Minister, Churchill remained in Parliament and would eventually run
successfully for the PM role again in the 1951 general election.
What year did Chaucer die?
 Chaucer died in 1400; the date on his tomb in
Westminster Abbey reads 25 October. He
became the first person to be buried in Poets’
Corner, though it wouldn’t become known by
that name until the sixteenth century, and
Chaucer was buried in the Abbey not for his
poetry but because he had been Clerk of Works
at the Palace of Westminster.
 He was the first person to
appear on a Coca-Cola bottle.
 In 2009, the poet Robert Burns
became the first person to appear
on a commemorative Coca-Cola
bottle.
What was Agatha Christie full name?
 Mary Clarissa Agatha Miller, later
known as Agatha Christie, is born on
September 15, 1890 in Torquay, Devon,
England.
She is the best-selling novelist in history. Popular
worldwide, her books have been translated into
dozens of languages and have sold an estimated 2
billion copies (and counting). This puts her third
on the all-time bestseller list behind only William
Shakespeare and the Bible.
Agatha Christie
Each year on January 25th, people around
the world celebrate Scotland's national
poet Robert Burns with ceilidhs,
traditional Scottish music, food and
poetry recitations. True or False?
True
German was Queen Victoria’s
first language. True or False?
 True. Queen Victoria’s Mother was from Germany and her Father was
from England.
She spoke German until she was age 3, and then started to learn English!
In fact, she was brilliant at languages and also knew how to speak French,
Italian, Latin and Hindustani.
Did Darwin believe in God?
 On the Origin of Species reflects
theological views. Though he thought
of religion as a tribal survival
strategy, Darwin still believed that God
was the ultimate lawgiver, and later
recollected that at the time he was
convinced of the existence of God as a
First Cause and deserved to be called a
theist.
Did the Queen have any
hobbies?
 Yes! She had lots of hobbies.
Queen Victoria loved to paint and draw.
She also loved going to the opera and
singing!
 He Liked to Eat Exotic Animals, but Not Owls.
He Married His First Cousin.
He Was a Backgammon Buff.
He Couldn't Stand the Sight of Blood.
He Was a Reluctant Revolutionary.
He Shared More Than a Birthday With Abraham Lincoln.
Charles Darwin
Robert Burns was known to be
a womanizer. True or False?
 Robert Burns was known for being a ladies' man,
fathering 12 children between 4 different women.
He was married to Jean Armour, the mother of nine
of his children, though he often engaged in
extramarital affairs, such as his romance with Mary
Campbell (pictured) who is said to have inspired
some of Burns' most popular works.
Why is Charles Darwin so special?
Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) transformed
the way we understand the natural world with
ideas that, in his day, were nothing short of
revolutionary. He and his fellow pioneers in the
field of biology gave us insight into the fantastic
diversity of life on Earth and its origins,
including our own as a species.
Did Robert Burns die in
debt?
 Yes, he did. Despite the incredible legacy
which Robert Burns left behind, he died in
debt. He was just 37 years old at the time of
his death in 1796, and it is said that he
owed money to several accounts.
Reportedly friends of the late poet raised
funds to support Burns' family through
public generosity and posthumous profits
from his poetry.
Was Robert Burns also commonly
known as Rabbie Burns?
Yes, he was.
Astronaut Nick Patrick took a book of Burns’
poetry into space with him in 2010. The book
travelled 217 times around the Earth! True or
False?
True
 What designer is a direct
descendant of Robert Burns?
The designer Tommy Hilfiger claims to
be a direct descendant of Robert Burns.
What is traditionally eaten
on Burns Night?
Haggis, neeps and tatties is a
traditional burns night meal.
Which famous song usually
sung on New Year's Eve did
Burns write?
He famously wrote Auld
Lang Syne.
Did Charles Darwin have
any hobbies?
Later, despite his father's urgings to pursue a career in
medicine, young Darwin found himself drawn to
careful, empirical observation of nature, particularly
through his cherished hobby of
collecting beetles.