A Guide To Literary Britain
- Brand
- Travelzoo
- Year
- 2016
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Travel & Hospitality
- Mechanic
- Puzzle
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Blueglass
Objective
2016 marked a cluster of British literary anniversaries — 400 years since Shakespeare's death, 200 since Charlotte Brontë's birth, 150 since Beatrix Potter's, 100 since Roald Dahl's — and Travelzoo UK built a quiz around them to pull book-loving readers into its blog and, from there, into its UK trip-booking funnel. The game exists to turn that literary interest into an actual reason to travel somewhere in Britain.
Solution
The player opens a map of the UK and works through 11 rounds, each posing a question like "where in Britain is this story set?" — with 30 seconds on the clock to click the right spot on the map before time runs out. After the last round, the game tallies a personal "book-smart score" the player can post to Facebook to challenge friends. Finishing also unlocks a full interactive map of literary Britain, populated with things to do at each location, and automatically enters the player into a draw for a two-night stay at the Wordsworth Hotel in the Lake District.
- 1
The game opens as an invitation on Travelzoo UK's blog, framing itself as a literary knowledge test — "can you tell your Brontë from your Blyton, your Amis from your Austen?" — before the player clicks through to the quiz itself.
- 2
The core screen is a map of the United Kingdom dotted with literary hotspots, spanning regions such as the Yorkshire moors, the Lake District, London, Oxford, and Cornwall.
- 3
Each round poses a question about a specific book — such as where Dylan Thomas was inspired to write Under Milk Wood, or where Bram Stoker's Dracula is set — and the player has 30 seconds to answer by clicking the map location they believe fits, rather than choosing from a list.
- 4
This question-timer-map-click cycle repeats for 11 books drawn from the British literary canon, including Poldark, Wuthering Heights, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Under Milk Wood.
- 5
After the eleventh question, the player receives a personal "book-smart score."
- 6
The player can share the score to Facebook and challenge friends to beat it.
- 7
Finishing the quiz unlocks the full literary map of the UK, which the player can then explore location by location for things to do — turning it into a planning guide for a literary trip.
- 8
Every player who completes the quiz is also entered into a prize draw for a two-night stay at the Wordsworth Hotel in the Lake District, with entries closing on 14 February.
