Australian author comes second in prestigious book prize
Queensland author Loani Prior has narrowly missed out on giving Australia its second successive victory in The Bookseller publishing trade journal's prestigious Diagram Prize. Ms Prior's How Tea Cosies Changed the World received 31% of the votes cast in the competition to choose the Oddest Book Title of the year just behind the winning Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop with 38%. Last year the Australian published Cooking with Poo was a clear-cut winner. Horace Bent, The Bookseller's diarist and custodian of the prize, said: "In Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop the public have chosen a hugely important work regarding the best way to protect one's fowl from the fairy realm's most bothersome creatures. Everyone knows well the hazards cats, dogs and foxes hold for owners of chickens, not to mention red mite, but the public has recognised the need to illuminate this hitherto under-reported nuisance." Bent added: "It is perhaps no coinci