With many thanks to the judges Julie Copeland, Michael Costigan and Val Kent. And to the Australian Booksellers Association and the Australian Book Publishers Association for their generous support.

As all reviewers know, reviews are ephemera; except, of course those able to pack a punch which rebounds on the reviewer or knocks out the writer. So it is that A. D. Hope’s comment on Patrick White’s style as ‘pretentious and il­literate verbal sludge’ is remembered as his judgement on The Tree of Man, while his sensitive assessment of the novel disappears from immediate recall. Some reviewers try to protect their reviews from literary waste-baskets by making them scholarly articles. Our judges had to decide which particular nominations received had those qualities which made them memorable reviews rather than distinguished essays.