Second time lucky?

It's very much swings and roundabouts for my friend Ali - on the one hand his novel The Girl With Glass Feet narrowly failed to make the shortlist for the Guardian's First Book Award, but on the other congratulations are due for its appearance among the four nominees for the Costa First Novel Award. And there I was wondering why he'd suddenly declared himself a fan of the coffee outlet last week...

The winner will be announced on 5th January, with the overall winner of the 2009 Book Of The Year Award being named three weeks later. Fingers are crossed.