Well, Cinders went to the ball last night at the very last minute, but I’m afraid I didn’t make it home till well past midnight … But you’ll be glad to know that pumpkin was not on the menu. The food was great, the wine superb (of course), the company glittering and most of the awards were spot on.

I have to say first though that the awards will never be forgotten by me or probably anyone who was there due to the extraordinary wheelchair presence of Mr Nigel Cox, who won joint runner up in the Fiction award. Extraordinary because Nigel is most gravely ill - as most of you will know from the Listener article this week. In fact it’s amazing that he made it up from Wellington at all.

Nigel's heartbreaking speech left hardened publishers choking in their napkins. You could have heard a pin drop as Nigel spoke the kindness of people, of finding that ‘you come to realise that everyone has a well of kindness in them that is just waiting for circumstances like these to flood out.’ Nigel the man, and his work, left us better people last night. In the midst of the glamour and glitz there was a deep, slow motion, frighteningly human silence as he spoke.

I so desperately wanted Nigel to win. I don’t want to take anything from the winners by saying this, but god – I really, really did. Even Elizabeth Knox did (she said with heartwarming honesty 'Dreamhunter can take care of itself' - the book is in the recent top ten Young Adult fiction in the US). And I have to say it – there should have been something at these awards – something more – to acknowledge what I believe is and will increasingly become, as these things do, a body of work that we will all look back on and marvel at.

What book could possibly ever come near Tarzan Presley? May Giant Nigerian Archive Earwigs forever nibble the ankles of anyone who can put down that book and say they are not changed in some way. However, the good news is that Nigel has finished his latest book, and we can look forward to reading The Cowboy Dog at some stage in the future. Meanwhile I'm wearing my Cowboy Dog button, courtesy of a certain publisher. Anyway. Onward.

As for the rest of it: I’ll put you out of your misery straight away, as if you don't already know – the most excellent Maurice Gee’s novel Blindsight (Penguin Books) won the Deutz Medal for Fiction or Poetry in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2006. This was a most auspicious win for ‘this country's greatest living novelist’ happily at the end of his career (in adult fiction at least, but he is writing a children’s book at present) and our heartiest congratulations go to Mr Gee.

However, it does unfortunately prove once and for all that if a book of poetry did not get the gong in 2006, it almost certainly never will, because it’s hard to imagine a better book of poetry than Bill Manhire’s Lifted. Which is a depressing thought. Maurice had quite a good, manly line to take the prize with though: ‘I wouldn’t have minded losing to Bill. But I didn’t.’

Pohutukawa & Rata: New Zealand's Iron-hearted Trees (Te Papa Press) by the ebullient Philip Simpson won the Montana Medal for Non Fiction. The judges kept banging on that it was very readable and I must say having flipped through it here and there that Philip’s large personality does shine through and it’s a book every Kiwi should own, that’s for sure. The Project Crimson table was whoopin’ and a-hollerin’. I’d dearly like someone to explain to me the reason behind the itsy-bitsy, rather weedy-looking pohutakawa on the cover though. I mean, you think of these trees, you think big, right? There must be a reason...

For the very first time since the Readers' Choice Award was introduced in 1998,
the public vote was evenly split between Blindsight and Fiona Kidman's The Captive Wife (Vintage). Fiona and Maurice linked arms and swanned up the steps, and Fiona said ‘that felt like getting married again!’ Then she made some rather saucy comments about writing being like any of the unmentionable acts one does in private and thanked her readers most prettily for, in effect, getting her out in public. Quite a hoot.

The other prizes were:

Biography: Dingle: Discovering the Sense in Adventure by Graeme Dingle
(Craig Potton Publishing) – Graeme commented that ‘it was a long way from getting 50% in School Cert English to the stage at the Montanas’;

History: Thrift to Fantasy: Home Textile Crafts of the 1930s - 1950s by Rosemary McLeod (HarperCollins Publishers) – Rosemary said she felt like a charlatan because she is really a journalist and this is all, like, literature, but jeez, that’s a great book. My only gripe here? Where, oh where was Vantastic? Sigh.

Reference & Anthology: Great Sporting Moments: The best of Sport magazine 1988–2004 edited by Damien Wilkins (Victoria University Press) – well what can you say. Still dipping into this brilliant anthology, still being surprised and delighted every time.

Lifestyle & Contemporary Culture: How to Look at a Painting by Justin Paton (Awa Press) – oh Justin! How we love you and your very stylish, very pregnant partner Vita… this has to be one of the best lil’ books around. Huge congrats here too to gorgeous, bubbly Mary Varnham with her great ideas. Up the AWA!

Illustrative: Contemporary New Zealand Photographers edited by Hannah Holm and Lara Strongman (Mountain View Publishing).

But before that there were the best first book awards for non-fiction, poetry, and fiction which were established by the New Zealand Society of Authors with the aim of encouraging new writers and their publishers. This year's competition was fierce with 36 books of non-fiction, nine of poetry, and nine of fiction vying for the awards. They’re always such a mouthful, but here they are:

New Zealand Society of Authors E H McCormick Best First Book Award for Non Fiction – Pakeha and the Treaty: Why it's Our Treaty too by Patrick Snedden (Random House NZ). Patrick’s acceptance speech was most beguiling;

New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry – Dream Fish Floating by Karlo Mila (Huia Publishers). The judges said, 'Karlo Mila writes with flair, energy and passion, creating a direct, accessible poetry. This multi-cultural, lyrical voice is one the judges expect to hear a lot more of.’ Oh yeah. Karlo is exuberance and charm personified.

New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction – A Red Silk Sea by Gillian Ranstead (Penguin Books). ‘A Red Silk Sea is ambitious in its sweep, consciously literary in its language, it is a strong début book,’ said the judges.

The A W Reed award for contribution to New Zealand literature was presented to the delectable Kevin Ireland. This award is presented biennially in recognition of an outstanding contribution to New Zealand literature and an involvement in activities which foster and promote literature to wider audiences.

Now, this very evening, he has emailed me about a little job I asked him to do (blogging for the NZ Book Month website) saying ‘I'm the sole judge for the BNZ Mansfield stories and since they're up to (and some are over) 5000 words, I have over a million words to get through, and I'm also doing an essay competition for North Shore Secondary schools. Please have mercy.’ So I think he’s probably a good choice. LeafSalon’s big congrats to another of our greatest living writers, and a very styley geezer to boot.

The Reviewer of the Year Award was Jolisa Gracewood, most deservedly - congratulations Jolisa, and the Best Review Page or Programme Award was Wellington’s Dominion Post. If only we had something as fab up here in Auckland – four whole pages devoted to books. Still, there’s always the Listener.

Well, that about wraps it up. I must say, I agreed with the judges’ wrap comments: 'The judging panel was impressed with how well New Zealand writing and publishing served the differing but overlapping reading publics of this culture. For a society with a comparatively small population base, the range of what is being written and published is great indeed, and across that range the quality is high.'

Hear, hear.