Here's the concept. You're looking for the names of 50 writers, two for each letter of the alphabet with the exception of x. There are 25 clues, each one prompting you towards two writers linked by the fact that their last names begin with the same letter of the alphabet. Thus, for example, you might – though you don't - have the clue 'Go down Gatsby' to give you William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Some of them are that easy. Fire away.
1. Just so trying for Joseph K.
2. A golden wardrobe?
3. Only connect Maurice and Margaret.
4. Rented a tent in Rome.
5. I heard that Jacques Hughes met a girl in the post office.
6. You need time for him and you need time for him.
7. Sounds like a small difference between Anne and Elizabeth.
8. Strange meeting in Catalonia.
9. Take the road to the groves of academe.
10. A more than human bard?
11. Washington squared with Dublin for a two-in-one writer.
12. Sammler's memories were enough to turn Agnes grey.
13. The camera's pale view.
14. Farewell my sisters.
15. Nymphette at altitude.
16. Something happened to create a notable scandal.
17. He only took a second, coming down the road of revolt.
18. A lighthouse to warn ships off the reef.
19. Not P.G., but it sounds as if his daughter might have been wounded by a chronological missile.
20. Exit rabbit.
21. Get your flies off my drum!
22. A double monarch in the Metro.
23. Call it Zuckerman.
24. He lost his head over Rebecca.
25. All is always now for Dorothea.
Entries to be submitted by 4 January, with 'Boxing Day literary quiz' as the subject line of the email. The winner(s) will be drawn - as in 'out of a hat' - from all those entries deemed correct by the judges (me and WotN). Two book tokens worth £15.00 each to be won.
[Update on 6 January 2010: Answers now here.]