Monty Lord's incredible Guinness World Record breaking achievement identifies 129 books by their opening lines

Montgomery 'Monty' Lord is the Guinness World Record holder for 'the most consecutive books identified by their first sentence'.

The St Joseph's RC High School pupil, officially a world memory champion, correctly identified the first line of 129 books in the testing conditions laid down by Guinness.

Monty decided to attempt to set a new Guinness World Record after, in his own time, he started to undertake a research study into the affects of electronic devices on circadian rhythms. His research led him to do a long distance course by the University of Yale, an American Ivy League university. And the course in foundational psychology included a memory module.

The world record was set at Monty's school in Horwich.

One-by-one, the opening lines of random books were read out and Monty had to recognise and recall the title of each individual book ­— with the record attempt captured from five separate camera angles.

Monty found out that his attempt was successful after receiving an email from the official adjudicator stating: "You’re Officially Amazing’ and that his world record title had already been included on the official Guinness World Records website.

Monty said, “I was half asleep when my father burst in and announced I was now a world memory champion. It didn’t really sink in for a couple of hours. It’s great but I’m just me and probably everyone has a record within them that they can break.

"I had two or three weeks to memorise the first lines, and I would try and find a link with the title, so Harry Potter was quite easy, but I did get stuck on Lord of the Rings, because I thought it might by The Hobbit but realised that I had already said that one."

School staged an official presentation for him.

"My friends keep asking if I am a Guinness World Record Holder!" said Monty.

Monty, who lives in Heaton, had put his memory skills to the test only last summer when he recited the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic at his dad's wedding.

"Learning the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic was harder, " said Monty, who is planning to break his own record and possibly set another this year by reciting the opening lines of books when presented with a title.

Fabian said: "I felt overwhelmingly proud the moment that email arrived in from the Guinness World Records adjudicator. I remember when I was five-years old and sat in front of the TV, watching Roy Castle and Norris McWhirter assessing people setting new world records each week on Record Breakers. I never imagined having a world memory champion in the family. Funnily enough, only the day before, we had bought Monty a Guinness World Record book as one of his Christmas presents.”

Monty, who became a best-selling author at the age of just seven with the release of Freaky School, added, “I’m not sure which was more of a shock for my father, between me walking in clutching the email to say I’d received financial assistance for the course at Yale or when he received the email to say I’d set a new world record.”

Headteacher Tony McCabe said: "We are proud to have a Guinness World Record holder here at St Joseph's.

"This is an amazing achievement and is a testimony to Monty's literature knowledge. It epitomises perfectly the line from our mission statement, 'to achieve beyond our wildest imagination' and is an inspiration to others who wish to attempt ambitious goals.”

THE BOOKS IDENTIFIED BY MONTY BY THEIR OPENING LINES

HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE: Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING: When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventyifirst birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.

FRANKENSTEIN: You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND: Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the riverbank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book', thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversation?

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE:What’s it going to be then, eh?'

MATILDA: It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.

PETER PAN: All children, except one, grow up.

THE BAD BEGINNING: A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS: If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other books.

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS: No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

GONE WITH THE WIND: Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.

1984: It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY: Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living.

THE GRAPES OF WRATH:P To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.

LIFE OF PI: My suffering left me sad and gloomy.

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA :To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman.

WATERSHIP DOWN: The primroses were over.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL: Marley was dead, to begin with.

FAHRENHEIT 451: It was a pleasure to burn.

MOBY-DICK; OR THE WHALE: Call me Ishmael.

THE COLOR PURPLE: You better not never tell nobody but God.

CUJO: Not so long ago, a monster came to the small town of Castle Rock, Maine.

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA: He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf stream and he had gone 84 days now without taking a fish.

ANNA KARENINA: All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

THE GREAT GATSBY: In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY: Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS: My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip.

LORD OF THE FLIES: The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way towards the lagoon.

THE METAMORPHOSIS: As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.

THE STRNGER: Mother died today.

BRAVE NEW WORLD: A squat gray building of only thirty-four storeys.

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE:All this happened, more or less.

I CAPTURE THE CASTLE: I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN: You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

TREASURE ISLAND: Squire Trelawney, Dr Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17-, and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn, and the brown old seaman, with the sabre cut, first took up his lodging under our roof.

CATCH-22:It was love at first sight.

THE MATIAN: I'm pretty much f*cked.

THE PRINCESS BRIDE: This is my favourite book in all the world, though I have never read it.

THE CROW ROAD: It was the day my grandmother exploded.

THE RESTAURANT AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE: The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created.

THE HOBBIT: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

LOLITA:Lolita light of my life, fire of my loins.

TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA: The year 1866 was signalized by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and inexplicable phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten.

CHARLOTTE'S WEB: Where's Papa going with that axe? Said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

THE TRIAL: Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST: They're out there - black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.

PARADISE: They shoot the white girl first.

THE HUNGER GAMES: When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.

HIGH-RISE: Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months.

THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY: Under certain circumstance there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.

ELMER GANTRY: Elmer Gantry was drunk.

THE PEARL: In the town they tell the story of the great pearl - how it was found and how it was lost again.

THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE:Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.

GOLDFINGER: James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death.

GRAVITY'S RAINBOW: A screaming comes across the sky.

BLACK BEAUTY: The first place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it.

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS: The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.

CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG: Most motorcars are conglomerations (this is a long word for bundles) of steel and wire and rubber and plastic, and electricity and oil and gasoline and water, and the toffee papers you pushed down the crack in the back seat last Sunday.

THE JUNGLE BOOK: It was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up from his day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling in their tips.

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY: These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr. Bucket.

WINNIE-THE-POOH: Here is Edward Bear, coming down the stairs now, bump bump bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin

THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR: One sunny Sunday, the caterpillar was hatched out of a tiny egg.

PADDINGTON BEAR: Mr. and Mrs. Brown first met Paddington on a railway platform.

THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER: My name is Tracy Beaker.

THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT: Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were-Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.

THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS: Everybody knows the story of the Three Little Pigs.

THE RAILWAY CHILDREN: They were not railway children to begin with.

THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA: Once there was a little girl called Sophie.

THE GRUFFALO: A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood.

JOHNNY AND THE DEAD: Johnny never knew for certain why he started seeing the dead.

THE WORST WITCH: Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches stood at the top of a high mountain surrounded by a pine forest.

THE BORROWERS: It was Mrs. May who first told me about them.

GOODNIGHT MISTER TOM: Yes,' said Tom bluntly, on opening the front door.

PINOCCHIO: Once upon a time there lived... 'A king!' my little readers will say immediately.

STIG OF THE DUMP: If you went too near the edge of the chalk-pit the ground would give way.

SUMMERS OF THE SISTERHOOD: THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELLING PANTS: Once upon a time there was a pair of pants.

BATMAN: YEAR ONE: Gotham City - maybe it's all I deserve, now.

ISLAND OF THE AUNTS: Kidnapping children is never a good idea; all the same, sometimes it has to be done.

THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ: Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife.

DOCTOR DE SOTO: Doctor de Soto was especially popular with the big animals.

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE: Once upon a time, a little girl named Laura travelled in a covered wagon across the giant prairie.

JUST WILLIAM: It all began with William’s aunt, who was in a good temper that morning, and gave him a shilling for posting a letter for her and carrying her parcels from the grocer’s.

WHERE'S SPOT?: That Spot! He hasn't eaten his supper.

THE DEMON HEADMASTER: Our last moments of freedom,’ Lloyd said darkly.

THE ANIMALS OF FARTHING WOOD:The animals of Farthing Wood were facing their first winter in their new home in the Nature Reserve of White Deer Park.

VELVETEEN RABBIT:There was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid.

THE SECRET DIARY OF ADRIAN MOLE, AGED 13¾: My father got the dog drunk on cherry brandy at the party last night.

THE VERY BUSY SPIDER: Early one morning the wind blew a spider across the field.

THE STORY OF BABAR:In the great forest a little elephant was born, his name was Babar.

CARRIE'S WAR:Carrie had often dreamed about coming back.

THUMBELINA: Thumbelina is content to spend her days rowing in a boat made from a tulip petal and sleeping in a cradle made from a polished walnut shell.

THE WEIRDSTONE OF BRISINGAMEN :At dawn one still October day in the long ago of the world, across the hill of Alderley, a farmer from Mobberley was riding to Macclesfield fair.

THE BORRIBLES: The swirling rain-clouds rushed on revealing the bright moon, and the two Borribles dodged behind the bushes and kept as quiet as they could.

IMOGENE’S ANTLERS:On Thursday, when Imogene woke up, she found she had grown antlers.

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID:First of all, let me get something straight: this is a journal, not a diary.

THE TEACHER’S FUNERAL: If your teacher has to die, August isn’t a bad time of year for it.

MACBETH :When shall we three meet again, In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE: Mr Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS: Mr Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in 1814.

OLIVER TWIST: Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictitious name, there is one anciently common to most towns, great or small: to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse was born; on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this stage of the business at all events; the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS: On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the bourg of Meung, in which the author of the Romance of the Rose was born, appeared to be in as perfect a state of revolution as if the Huguenots had just made a second Rochelle of it.

ROMEO AND JULIET: Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

WAR AND PEACE: WELL, PRINCE, Genoa and Lucca are now no more than private estates of the Bonaparte family.

THE TWITS: What a lot of hairy-faced men there are around nowadays.

CASINO ROYALE: The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER:With its two fighting claws held forward like a wrestler’s arms the big pandinus scorpion emerged with a dry rustle from the finger-sized black hole under the rock.

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE: The geisha called ‘Trembling Leaf’, on her knees beside James Bond, leant forward from the waist and kissed him chastely on the right cheek.

OCTOPUSSY AND THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS :You know what?’ said Major Dextor Smythe to the octopus.

THE IRON MAN: The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff.

JAWS: The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail.

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE-DAME: It is this day three hundred and forty-eight years six months and nineteen days since that the good people of Paris were awakened by a grand peal from all the bells in the three districts of the City, the University, and the Ville.

PRIDE & PREJUDICE: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS:1801 – I have just returned from a visit to my landlord – the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.

THE GODFATHER: Amergo Bonasera sat in New York Criminal Court Number 3 and waited for justice; vengeance on the men who had so cruelly hurt his daughter, who had tried to dishonor her.

SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS: Roger, aged seven, and no longer the youngest of the family, ran in wide zigzags, to and fro, across the steep field that sloped up from the lake to Holly Howe, the farm where they were staying for part of the summer holidays.

JANE EYRE: There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly-fishing.

CAT'S EYE 118 Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space.

BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWN-UPS: Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.

WAITING 120 Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu.

A FROLIC OF HIS OWN: Justice? You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law.

MIDDLE PASSAGE: Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I've come to learn, is women.

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE: If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: On an exceptionally hot evening in early July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge.

CANDIDE, OR OPTIMISM: In the castle of Westphalia, belonging to the Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh, lived a youth, whom nature had endowed with the most gentle manners.

THE BELL JAR: It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.

ETHAN FROME: I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story.

THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE: The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting.

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER: In the town, there were two mutes and they were always together.