What should you know about arts, music and literature for the Life in the UK test?

What should you know about arts, music and literature for the Life in the UK test?

Learn the people by art form: music, theatre, painting, building, books, poetry and film. Then add one fact to each name. There are many names, so sorting them is the main job.

You will not need every name equally. Start with the ones that come with a famous work, because a work gives you something to hold on to.

For more names, read famous people and landmarks and places of interest. The modern society chapter page covers the whole topic, and the free practice test shows where you slip.

Which composers and music events should you know?

Henry Purcell (1659 to 1695) played the organ at Westminster Abbey and developed a British style. George Frederick Handel was born in Germany and became a British citizen in 1727. He wrote Water Music for George I, Music for the Royal Fireworks and the oratorio Messiah, often sung at Easter.

Gustav Holst wrote The Planets and used Jupiter as the tune for the hymn I vow to thee my country. Sir Edward Elgar was born in Worcester, and his Pomp and Circumstance March No 1, Land of Hope and Glory, is played at the Last Night of the Proms. Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote for orchestras and choirs and loved English folk tunes. Sir William Walton wrote Belshazzar's Feast. Benjamin Britten is known for his operas Peter Grimes and Billy Budd, and he founded the Aldeburgh festival.

The Proms is an eight-week summer season of classical music, run by the BBC since 1927, with the Royal Albert Hall as a main venue. Pop music is a big theme too: The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, punk in the late 1970s and boy and girl bands in the 1990s. Festivals include Glastonbury, the Isle of Wight and Creamfields. The National Eisteddfod of Wales is held in Welsh, with poetry competitions. The Mercury Prize goes to an album each September.

What is in the theatre section?

London's West End is called Theatreland. The Mousetrap, by Agatha Christie, has run since 1952. Gilbert and Sullivan wrote comic operas such as HMS Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the music for Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, and with Tim Rice he wrote Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita.

Pantomime is a Christmas show based on fairy stories, with a Dame played by a man. The Laurence Olivier Awards are named after an actor known for Shakespeare roles.

Which artists and buildings are named?

Link each name to a subject. Gainsborough painted portraits in garden scenery. Turner and Constable painted views of the countryside, and Constable is linked with Dedham Vale. The Pre-Raphaelites, among them Holman Hunt, Rossetti and Millais, painted detailed scenes in bright colours. Henry Moore made large bronze sculptures. Lucian Freud, born in Germany, is known for portraits, and David Hockney is a pop art figure of the 1960s. The Turner Prize began in 1984.

For buildings, follow the centuries. Medieval cathedrals include Durham, Lincoln, Canterbury and Salisbury. Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren worked in the 17th century, and Wren helped to build the new St Paul's. Robert Adam came in the 18th century, and the Royal Crescent in Bath belongs to that time. The gothic style returned in the 19th century with the Houses of Parliament and St Pancras Station. Sir Edwin Lutyens designed New Delhi and the Cenotaph. Lancelot "Capability" Brown shaped gardens.

Which writers and poets are named?

• Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice, about marriage and family.
• Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. Scrooge and Mr Micawber come from his books.
• Thomas Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd, about country life.
• Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes.
• Evelyn Waugh, Kingsley Amis and Graham Greene, with Brideshead Revisited, Lucky Jim and Brighton Rock.
• J K Rowling: the Harry Potter books. Agatha Christie and Ian Fleming, who created James Bond, are also named.

For poetry, think of three groups. The old poems are Beowulf, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The 19th century poets include Wordsworth, Blake, Keats, Byron, Shelley, Tennyson and the Brownings. The First World War poets are Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. Shakespeare's sonnets must have 14 lines. Poets' Corner is in Westminster Abbey.

Learn what the handbook says, because the test follows the handbook: the Man Booker Prize began in 1968 for fiction by authors from the Commonwealth, Ireland or Zimbabwe. Today this has changed: it is now called the Booker Prize.

Which films and comedy should you know?

Charlie Chaplin, a star of silent films, and the director Alfred Hitchcock are named. Famous films include The 39 Steps (1935), Brief Encounter (1945), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Chariots of Fire (1981). The BAFTA awards are the British match for the Oscars. Nick Park made Wallace and Gromit. In comedy, Punch began in the 1840s, and Monty Python's Flying Circus began in 1969.

Check yourself

Name three composers and one work for each.

Write one writer for each of these: a detective, a rural novel, a London orphan, a boy wizard.

Choose one painter, one architect and one poet and say what each is known for.