In "The Courier-Mail" over the weekend (and elsewhere I think, as I'm sure I read this in another paper), Susanna Clarke gives a potted history of the Miles Franklin Award from inception to date. She revisits some of the controversies that have affected the award, such as the Helen Demidenko/Darville (and now Dale) affair from 1995, and provides one-line summaries of the past 8 winners.
For example: 2004 The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard was an odd choice: old-fashioned writing, a nasty anti-Australian streak and unconvincing characterisation.
