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Henrietta Rose-Innes did me the great favor of introducing The New Suffolk Hymnbook at Julie Aitchison’s fine bookshop on Wednesday evening. She spoke quite eloquently and left me quite flustered; she’s agreed to allow me to publish her notes on Boswestblog - they’ll appear here soon.

Gus Ferguson, Henrietta Rose-Innes and Jeanne Hromnik

The turnout was good, with many friends coming along, and an encouraging number of novels sold and signed. Spotted, inter alia: Mike Cohen, Russel Brownlee, Chris Nicklin, Rodney Trudgeon, Nozuko Mbana, Gus Ferguson and Jeanne Hromnik.

Thanks to all who showed up. Here are a few more snaps (all courtesy my Lovely Assistant):

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South Africa is known as a land of compromises - and last night the judges of the Sunday Times Book Awards did the country’s reputation awkward justice, by failing to pick a clear winner in the non-fiction category. Edwin Cameron and Adam Levin shared the spoils, for their books Witness to AIDS and AidSafari, respectively.

The fiction award went to Andrew Brown, for his Coldsleep Lullaby. I haven’t yet read any of the winners - had had high hopes, in fact, for Russel Brownlee’s novel, Garden of the Plagues, in the fiction category.

I confess to being irked at hung juries, because a jury that can’t make up its mind is ultimately a selfish one - it wants to draw attention to itself. I’m probably not half so irked, however, as Cameron and Levin, who are now each possessed of half an award, and burdened by the necessity of being gracious to each other in public. This is not to say that they were not fast friends to begin with, just that it’s unpleasant to share the limelight, and to know that it was a genre - reportage from the HIV/AIDS front - more than any particular effort of theirs, that got the prize.

• Official coverage: Sunday Times | Sunday Times Book Awards

Edwin Cameron
…at the Cape Town Book Fair.