Still, we hadn’t anticipated the flood of emails, letters and faxes that continued unabated until just before Christmas. It was all most diverting as we marvelled at certain arcane selections and enjoyed your annotations, both cheeky and encomiastic. By December 15, readers had voted in their thousands for some 290 individual novels. Actually, many more publications were nominated, but these included short story collections and autobiographies – chiefly, Albert Facey’s A Fortunate Life and Li Cunxin’s Mao’s Last Dancer – and overseas publications, all of which were ineligible.

Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet, a perennial favourite since its publication in 1991, was the overwhelming favourite – by a margin of three to one to its nearest rival, Henry Handel’s mighty trilogy, The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, which was closely followed by Patrick White’s Voss and Winton’s most recent novel, Breath.

Particularly heartening was the large number of nineteenth-century novels and those published before the remarkable expansion of fiction publishing in the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Many readers have asked if we intend to conduct future polls of this kind. The popularity of the ABR FAN Poll certainly encourages us to think of mounting others, so stay tuned.

For a complete list of the top twenty novels, turn to page 25. A list of all 290 nominated titles now appears on our website: www.australianbookreview.com.au. Has anyone read all of them, we wonder.

AND THE WINNERS ARE ...

It’s a great pleasure to name our three lucky winners, all drawn at random. Karen Ferguson, who lives in the Northern Territory, wins the subscription to ABR, with our compliments. David Mortimer (South Australia) wins the 99 Popular Penguins, valued at a shade under $1000; while Gillian Pechey (Queensland) will receive the deluxe leatherbound edition of The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, worth $410. We thank our partners and everyone who took part in the poll.

MISSING DONALD FRIEND DIARIES UNCOVERED

Two diaries by Australian artist Donald Friend believed missing for more than sixty years have been found in the United States and donated to the National Library of Australia. The diaries were uncovered by Ian Britain whilst visiting Fallingwater, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in Pennsylvania, where he was researching his biography of Friend. Aware that Friend had sold two diaries to the last private owner of Fallingwater, Edgar Kaufmann Jr, in 1944, Dr Britain eventually tracked down David de Long, who had been given a box of Kaufmann’s effects left over from the sale of the estate. ‘Professor de Long asked me for a description of what I was looking for and rang me back an hour later, saying he had found one of the missing diaries in that collection – Vol XIV in the series Desastres de la Guerra,’ Dr Britain said. ‘He indicated straight away that he and others connected with the Kaufmann estate had no doubt that the diary should be returned to Australia and enter the National Library’s collection – plus anything else that may turn up.’ Two weeks later, David de Long found the second diary, Vol IX, July–August, 1943. The diaries cover Friend’s time in the army, 1942–45. They join the forty-four diaries already held in the Library’s extensive collection of Friend’s manuscripts. ‘We are very grateful to Ian Britain and his excellent detective work in helping to bring the diaries back to Australia and into our collection, a collection that belongs to all Australians,’ commented Jan Fullerton, Director-General of the National Library.

CHANGES AT THE ASA

Angelo Loukakis has recently taken over as Executive Director of the Australian Society of Authors. Loukakis, who has worked as a writer, editor, publisher, teacher and literary activist, replaces Jeremy Fisher, who is now a Senior Lecturer in Writing at the University of New England.

THE ROAD TO A GIVEAWAY

The first ten new subscribers this month will receive a signed copy of The Boat, courtesy of Penguin. Written by Nam Le at the famed Iowa Writers’ Workshop, The Boat is recognised as a watershed moment for the Australian short story collection and has been duly awarded as such. Courtesy of Icon Films, the subsequent twenty-five new or renewing subscribers will each receive a double pass to the film The Road. Adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Australian director John Hillcoat (The Proposition), The Road screens nationally from 26 January. To subscribe visit www.australianbookreview.com. au or phone (03) 9429 6700.