Chai Time, Tom Keneally and Sinead

Shankari Chandran has won this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award for Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens. It's a novel the judges described as 'alive with character, dialogue and action' but one Shankari herself feared would never be published after sales of her earlier novel, The Barrier, were low. It's one of the pitfalls of being a writer: the possibility that a work, having taken so much time, thought. energy and passion, may never be published. What a cause for celebration, then, that Chai Time in Cinnamon Gardens has not only been published by the vibrant Ultimo Press but has now won Australia's most distinguished literary award.  

It was wonderful to see so many of you at my Sydney launch last week. Tom Keneally launched my novel The Watchful Wife and regaled us all. I had the best time and will post a recording of highlights from the evening very soon. 

On a sombre note, I was saddened to hear of the death of Sinead O'Connor, whose songs have carried me through much of my  life. As they have for many of you, too, I suspect.  

I'm looking forward to seeing you at Thursday Book Club tonight - and next week, too, when journalist and author, Michael Burge, will be joining us.  And if you're in Newtown on Saturday, hope you can join us for An Afternoon with Suzanne Leal and Petronella McGovern. at Better Read Than Dead. It should be fun.