Last Sunday’s ABC television poll to find Australia's 100 favourite books has become mired in controversy, thanks to a Queensland preacher.

According to a report in the Herald Sun newspaper,

The Reverend Col Stringer beat literary greats Emily Bronte, JD Salinger and CS Lewis to take 12th place in the poll with his book, 800 Horsemen.

Fighting McKenzie Anzac Chaplain, also by Mr Stringer, took 29th place in the poll which tens of thousands of Australians entered, voting via SMS, fax or e-mail.

Not surprisingly, Australian publishers are ‘questioning the validity’ of the poll. And Neilsen BookScan reckons that only seven copies of Stringer's books have been sold since December 2002.

Stringer is fighting back against allegations of vote-rigging, claiming that 30,000 copies of 800 Horsemen have been sold through Christian bookstores - which do not contribute to the mainstream bestseller lists. And Stringer adds further fuel to the fire by proclaiming that ‘The heritage of our nation is Christian. It's not Buddhist or Muslim or tree huggers. It's Christian.’

All good, controversial stuff. To read an excerpt from Stringer’s magnum opus, sashay over here.