Only serious news junkies will ace this Have I Got News For You quiz – see how many questions you can get

WERE you paying attention to the news this year? If so, have we got questions for you.

A new book based on the BBC panel show Have I Got News For You is packed full of puzzles that will test your knowledge of 2023.

BBC/Hat Trick/Ray Burmiston

Have I Got News For You team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton[/caption]

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Have I Got News For You: The Quiz Of 2023 by Dan Bowman is out now[/caption]

There’s hardly been a quiet moment in the past 11 months – but can you remember it all?

Try our quiz to find out.

• This is an edited extract by Natasha Harding from Have I Got News For You: The Quiz Of 2023 by Dan Bowman (Sphere, £16.99), out now.

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Nicola Sturgeon shocked Scotland by resigning as first minister on February 15[/caption]

Nicola Sturgeon Fishy Surnames

NICOLA STURGEON shocked Scotland by resigning as first minister on February 15.

The answers to this round are all people who – like ­Sturgeon – have aquatic surnames.

Can you work them out from the clues?

1. Former US boyband member, whose hits include Bye Bye Bye, Tearin’ Up My Heart and It’s Gonna Be Me.
2. Presenter and actor whose credits include Citizen Khan, Ackley Bridge and Good Morning Britain. Is also a regular Have I Got News for You host.
3. Veteran comedian and writer. Won the tenth series of Taskmaster. Former comedy partner of Stewart Lee.
4. Oscar-nominated star whose credits include Gone Girl and Pride & Prejudice.
5. Former footballer who won the League Cup with Leicester, the Scottish league title with Celtic and also had spells at Wycombe Wanderers, Port Vale, Stoke City and Leeds.

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Actress Gwyneth Paltrow was involved in a ski accident[/caption]

True Or False

1. FOR Valentine’s Day 2023, Build-A-Bear Workshop launched a range of adult-only bears, complete with wine bottles, stilettos and sexy lingerie.
2. In August, Edinburgh Zoo admitted that a koala bear escaped in 2015 and was on the loose for seven months before being captured on a farm 16 miles away.
3. After being cleared of fault over a 2016 ski crash on March 30, actress Gwyneth Paltrow was awarded just $1.
4. In January, an original Mr Blobby costume listed on eBay for £39 received a winning bid of £62,000 following a fierce bidding war.
5. In May, Plymouth City Council cut down a large number of trees to stop people having public sex in the area.

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Liz Truss, We Hardly Knew Ye

WHEN last year’s Have I Got News For You book went to print, Liz Truss had just become PM.

When writing began on this one, Liz was no longer PM.

She’s not getting off that easily though, so can you work out whether the following things were longer or shorter than her 49-day reign?

1. David Blaine’s 2003 “Above The Below” stunt, in which he was suspended over the River Thames in a Perspex box with no access to food.
2. Bryan Adams’s stint at No1 with 1991 track (Everything I Do) I Do It For You.
3. Longest continuous flight, achieved by a Cessna 172 in 1959.
4. Hulk Hogan’s first WWE (then WWF) title reign after defeating The Iron Sheik at Madison Square Garden on January 23, 1984.
5. The 2022 Conservative leadership contest, which she won to become PM in the first place.

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2023 General Knowledge

1. EARLY in the year, the UK’s most dim-witted inhabitants queued for hours to get their hands on an energy drink launched by YouTube “celebs” KSI and Logan Paul, but what is it called?
2. On April 20, one of Elon Musk’s ­SpaceX ships spectacularly exploded shortly after taking off from Texas. How was the explosion described by SpaceX’s official Twitter account while debris was still raining from the sky?
3. In early February, tensions between the US and China increased significantly after what was spotted in the skies above Montana and South Carolina?
4. To celebrate Women’s Day 2023, Girl Guiding chiefs unveiled a statue depicting a female version of which historical figure?
5. One of 2023’s best-selling video games based on the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter made headlines for the entirely predictable ­culture war that followed its release on February 7. What is it called?

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WWE wrestler Hulk Hogan[/caption]

Heroes And Villains

SUPERHERO films continued to be forced down everyone’s throats in 2023.

Given the often terrible reviews these films get, we’ve come up with some plotlines to inspire the studio sequels – a fictional superhero pitted against a real-life ‘villain’.

Can you figure out who’s who?

1. Man whose weakness is getting trapped under a glass heads north across the demilitarised zone to take out a dictator with a terrible haircut.
2. Scientist with short fuse and a habit of changing colour launches surprise attack on a bald retail tycoon.
3. Woman puts her nine lives to the test in a battle at Four ­Seasons Total Landscaping depot.
4. Africa’s most powerful hero heads back in time to Prohibition-era New York to take out the city’s notorious crime boss.
5. Man with a patriotic shield risks a new Cold War after setting his sights on one of Europe’s most unhinged leaders.

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One of Elon Musk’s ­SpaceX ships spectacularly exploded shortly after taking off from Texas[/caption]