Now it's the turn of the Listener to name the books of the year. No space to feature all on their list, but this is the Top Ten:

• Maurice Gee: The Scornful Moon

• Rose Tremain: The Colour

• Bill Bryson: A Short History of Nearly Everything

• Michael King: The Penguin History of New Zealand

• Elizabeth Jane Howard: Slipstream

• Claire Tomalin: Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self

• Cliff Fell: The Adulterer’s Bible

• Matt Ridley: Nature via Nurture

• Simon Kuper: Ajax, The Dutch, The War

• Tamasin Day-Lewis: Tarts with Tops On

Kelly Ana Morey’s Bloom is namechecked as 'Local Debut of the Year'.

NB: Morey has been awarded the $20,000 Todd New Writers' Bursary for 2003. The Bursary is awarded each year by the Arts Board of Creative New Zealand and authors such as Rebekah Palmer, Catherine Chidgey and Emily Perkins have benefited from it. Morey's next novel, Grace is Gone, is due for publication by Penguin in late 2004.