Yesterday evening we enjoyed a very jolly office Christmas party. It involved a luminous tree; adequate amounts tinsel, tea light candles carefully strewn around the office (and not too close to our large archive of books), copious amounts of cava and mulled wine, a ridiculously large spread of food (note-to-self: remember, Chiara, when you next cater for a party that not everyone has your gargantuan appetite …), the discovery that Tesco’s Finest Dim Sum selection is really rather good, and a puzzle key-chain from a cracker that everyone, at some point in the evening, felt compelled to tackle – in vain.

That blasted plastic puzzle steered the conversation to MENSA and could have put a damper on the evening – a subtle reminder that we wouldn’t be joining the echelons of that high IQ society. I say it could have, if we hadn’t simply shrugged and reached for yet another glass of mulled wine and focused on choosing the paper crown hat that best suited our complexion…

But the topic of MENSA reminded me of a MENSA test which someone had sent to me years ago and which had me obsessing about it for weeks, possibly months. Last night I couldn’t remember exactly what the test was (‘Something with numbers in a sentence’ was my eloquent explanation…) but today I have Googled it and can share the test with you here.  Enjoy! <evil grin>  And if that test doesn’t have you weeping into your Christmas stocking, there are more where that came from here.

But before you jump into the world of MENSA, here’s something for you to tackle today. Test your literary IQ by entering The Guardian Review’s Literary Quiz by midnight tonight and you could win a set of five Books of the Year.  I had planned to go Christmas shopping but my competitive streak tells me I’ll be obsessing about this tonight instead…

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity & Online Marketing Manager