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Diagram victory for Greek Postmen

05.09.08 | Philip Jones

Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers has been crowned the oddest book title of the past 30 years. In The Bookseller's online poll to find the "Diagram of Diagrams", Derek Willan's comprehensive record of a sector of Greece's postal routes gained 13% of the public vote. Gary Leon Hill's People Who Don't Know They're Dead finished second (11% of the public vote) and John Trimmer's guide to avoiding maritime mishaps, How to Avoid Huge Ships (10%) finished third.

The vote to discover the oddest title of the past 30 years was run in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Tittle of the Year. The prize was first conceived by The Diagram Group's Bruce Robertson as a way of avoiding boredom at the Frankfurt Book Fair. In its first year, in 1978, Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice picked up the award.

Horace Bent, The Bookseller's legendary diarist and custodian of the prize, said: "The posties pulled off a real shock here. The pre-tournament favourite was the prize’s first ever recipient - Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice. The 1978 winner picked up the 15-year anniversary gong in 1993. But right from the off, it was Gary Leon Hill’s People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead that set the pace. It topped the polls for over three weeks until, at the very last moment, the Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers pipped the People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead at the line."

Asked why he thought Greek Rural Postmen... appealed to the public more than the other 27 titles on the list, Philip Stone, charts editor at The Bookseller, said: "Although every book on the list is a deserving winner, I am positive that the book benefitted from topicalty. The papers are littered with news stories regarding the closure of local, rural post offices across Great Britain, and I sincerely believe that this title provides further proof to the current Government that the British public are passionate about the maintenance and continuation of local mail delivery services. And not just nationally, but internationally".

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