London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

But first, book news, and there have been a few award bits and pieces, Geoff.

So in Australia, the Stella Prize winner has been announced, and this is an award for the best book by a woman or non-binary author.

It used to be women authors up till, I think, 2021.

They changed it to include non-binary.

And it can be fiction or nonfiction, so it's quite interesting because you can have novels, poetry collections, and nonfiction as well.

And this year it has been won by Lee Lai for her graphic novel, Canon.

And so this is the first time that a non-binary author has won the Stella Prize, and also the first time a graphic novel has won.

I haven't read Canon, and I have to confess, I'm not a huge reader of graphic novels.

But I did notice that one of her influences was Persepolis, which I read a few years ago, which I thought was excellent, and then she obviously has a few other influences that she's cited.

But it sounds like it's a really interesting one.

So it might be one of those few graphic novels that I dip into.

But I assume you hadn't heard much about that in the UK.

I hadn't heard of this title or author.

I did used to wonder whether it was fair pitting graphic novels against novels if it was just a prize for novels.

But I don't feel so strongly about it when the genres are completely open.

So you've, for the Stella Prize, you've got fiction, you've got nonfiction, you've got poetry.

In that situation, I can see, see the point of having graphic novels as part of that mix.

Yes.

So yeah.

But I don't know if that's been controversial at all in Australia, the f- the inclusion of, or the winning of, by a graphic novel.

Well, not that I've seen, but I do wonder if that goes back to the story we talked about last week, where there's fewer arts critics or book critics being engaged by the news media.

So perhaps there's just not as much in the media generally.

But I hadn't noticed it, you know, anyone kicking up a fuss.

So no, it seems to be very glowing praise and, and lots of really glowing articles about it, and saying if you'd not, if you haven't been into graphic novels, this is actually a good one to start with, apparently.

So there you go.