1. "As far as children‘s books go, it‘s pretty subversive," said Stephen Page, head of the books‘ British publisher, Faber and Faber.

2. Profile had two other books in the Christmas top ten: Trusss Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life, and Alan Bennetts Untold Stories, published jointly with Faber and Faber.

3. FEDERICO FELLINI: His Life and Work By Tullio Kezich Faber and Faber 444 pp; $35 In the MonitorTuesday, 03/21/06 Iraqi turmoil puts Mideast on edge Congress eyes own window on Iraq war Homeowners stretched perilously Australian women shrink the pay gap Editorial: Selling ‘pandemic flu‘ through a language of fear Get all the Monitor‘s headlines by e–mail.Subscribe for free.

4. This depicts a ‘key scene‘ in the book where the heroine Ruth holds a pillow, showing her longing for a baby, as she dances to the sound of the Dinah Washington song from which the book‘s title was taken. ‘We wanted to make it intriguing without being too sinister,‘ said Donna Payne, art director at publishers Faber and Faber.

5. It is a sustained act of invention, but the novel runs against the limits of invention, too." First novel shortlist Tash Aw The Harmony Silk Factory (Harper Perennial) Diana Evans 26a (Chatto & Windus) Peter Hobbs The Short Day Dying (Faber and Faber) Rachel Zadok Gem Squash Tokoloshe (Pan Macmillan) Biography shortlist Nigel Farndale Haw–Haw (Macmillan) Richard Mabey Nature Cure (Chatto & Windus) Alexander Masters Stuart: A Life Backwards (Fourth Estate) Hilary Spurling Matisse the Master (Hamish Hamilton) Poetry shortlist David Harsent Legion (Faber) Christopher Logue Cold Calls (Faber) Richard Price Lucky Day (Carcanet) Jane Yeh Marabou (Carcanet) Children‘s book shortlist Frank Cottrell Boyce Framed (Macmillan) Geraldine McCaughrean The White Darkness (Oxford University Press) Hilary McKay Permanent Rose (Hodder Headline) Kate Thompson The New Policeman (Bodley Head) More business news Guardian Unlimited Money Economic dispatch Useful link Whitbread