The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time by Mark Haddon has just won the Whitbread Book of The Year award.

Haddon’s novel was published simultaneously as a work of children’s and adult fiction, and has sold 150,000 copies since its release in April last year. It has already won the Whitbread Novel of the Year, but surprisingly, it was not included on the Booker shortlist.

Joan Bakewell, who chaired the judging panel, said the judges had been torn between Haddon’s book and Don Paterson’s poetry collection, Landing Light. "People in their own minds were quite divided over these two books,” she said.

But at the final reckoning, Haddon’s book had “used disability to throw a light upon the world".

PS: We have read it, and love it. The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time is a cast-iron LeafSalon recommendation.