Finding Nemo’s Almanac

Finding Nemo’s Almanac

 

For many many years I have been a great fan of Nemo’s Almanac, and it seems to me that many of my readers might like to know about it too. It is an excellent diversion, and also makes a great present for bookish friends…. My erudite, literary, knowledgeable readers (yes I mean you) would make the ideal audience. 

So I will try to describe the whole phenomenon.

Nemo has been going for 134 years. A small booklet of quotations is produced each autumn, and participants have the best part of a year to try to track them all down. They send in their answers by the beginning of Septmember – there are 72, quotes (divided up into 6 for each month) + one on the cover. The editor gives 10 points for each correct answer.

I believe there are prizes although that doesn’t seem to be the point (and I’m not only saying that because I’ve never won one). It’s the joy of the chase, tracking down a quotation, finding clues in the text, trying so hard to remember where you saw it before…

In a remarkable way, Nemo has changed, but not changed at all: after more than 100 years, the internet burst onto the world. Someone could simply Google all the answers, I suppose, though I don’t know if they would all turn up. But the remarkable thing is – the competitors don’t. There was a general agreement that that would be no fun at all, so the rules were agreed: you can use online resources to check, but you can’t just Google. And we all say ‘righto’ and we go and try to find the quotes in other ways.

It is a big Nemo year for me: I was quite high up the list:

 

BUT more to the point – I fulfilled a lifelong ambition, which was I became a guest setter. The December quotations for 2025 were produced by me, as you can see here. When I was first doing Nemo, so very many years ago, I would have been delighted to know that I had worked my way up the score list, and that I could be a guest setter.

 

To give you a clue as to what it’s like, this is a picture of SOME of the books I used in the search for the quotations a couple of years ago…

 

If you like the sound of all this, then I strongly recommend that you go over to the website

 

LITERARY QUIZ | NEMO'S ALMANAC

 

Where you can find out everything you need to know, such as how to order copies. The current editor, Ian Patterson, is a delight and will be very pleased to hear from you. Tell him I sent you….