Ooh yes - Steinbeck. A couple of years ago we did a Steinbeck tour - Salinas, Monterey, and all round there. Before that we did a bit of a Robert Louis Stevenson pilgrimage - area near Sacramento where he went, as described in his book "Silverado".
My specialist subject would be Germany at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Saying that, in our local pub quiz whenever a Beatles question came up the Quizmaster would say 'Here's one for Kate' and I often got it wrong! Not as knowledgeable as I think I am.
we were discussing this the other day when I said I had seen all the James Bond films so many times I could answer questions on Mastermind. I was being ironic.
However if I were choose something I know a bit about but could cram for it would be the life of Charles the Second and for my semi final(!) it would be Rachmaninov.
The evolution of Godzilla in films since 1954. My DGS lectured me on this endlessly until he started investigating the development and use of tanks in warfare since. . . The life and works of Émile Zola -I know quite a lot, but I’d need to do some serious cramming!
Dds and I often said in the past that if we were ever on Mastermind, our Special Subject would be Who Said What To Whom And When, in the BBC Pride and Prejudice series! (Not that we watched it a million times or anything.....)
Other than that, Anthony Trollope’s Palliser series, and maybe the Barchester novels, too.
I suppose that you could: a) choose a topic that you already know inside out, or b) choose something that you'd really enjoy learning about, and cram for it.
And would you go Low, Middle or High Brow? For me, off the top of my head:
Low - Celebrity Big Brother Middle - the life and works of Sue Townsend High - Joshua Reynolds and the establishment of The Royal Academy.