David Mitchell hosts the 2009 Colman Getty PEN Quiz

Monday 23 November 2009, 6pm-12pm
At RIBA, Portland Place, London

Tension will be high as London’s press and publishing giants rival for the ultimate trophy of the media year. The going will be tough but the night will be tinged with the comic genius of this year’s Quizmaster.

David Mitchell joins a distinguished list of former Quizmasters including Bamber Gascoigne, Jeremy Paxman, Clive James, Dara Ó Briain, John Sergeant and Mariella Frostrup.

Last year the Association of Authors’ Agents took first place, just pipping publisher HarperCollins to the post. Learned members of the winning team, led by the literary agent Derek Johns, were Giles Foden, Daisy Goodwin, Martin Rowson, Louisa Young, David Miller, Paul Marsh and Natasha and James Fairweather.

Marcus Berkmann, author of several quizzing books, has been invited back to set the questions for a second year - they will be entirely Google-proof and guaranteed to get even the most knowledgeable of brains working over-time.

Kathy Lette will take on the role of rafflemaster. Prizes in this year’s raffle include a week’s stay in a Dorset cottage; a Special Edition of J. K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard; services of a personal shopper and the Personal Style Service at Liberty’s of London; an electric donut maker; 'London's Top Afternoon Tea' for two at Brown's Hotel in Mayfair; the 2010 Man Booker Prize shortlist – signed by the authors; a free consultation with leading psychoanalyst Darian Leader and an on-the-spot caricature by Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson.

The Colman Getty quiz is English PEN’s main fundraising event of the year and raises essential funds to support PEN’s work defending freedom of expression, campaigning on behalf of persecuted writers worldwide and promoting literature and literacy.

This year and for the fourth year running, Colman Getty, the culture and campaigning consultancy, is the principal sponsor of the quiz.

So far the tables have been taken by the Association of Authors’ Agents, Bloomberg, Colman Getty, Faber and Faber, The Guardian, Hachette, HW Fisher, HarperCollins, The Literary Consultancy, Little, Brown, London Book Fair, The Observer, Orion, Penguin, Poet in the City, Prospect/Political Quarterly, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, the Romantic Novelists’ Association and The Times.

For more information on English PEN please contact Jonathan Heawood on 020 7713 0023 or at jonathan@englishpen.org.

For all other press information please contact Lucy Chavasse, Colman Getty on 020 7631 2666 or lucy@colmangetty.co.uk.