Mal Peet wins Guardian prize

Mal Peet has won the 2009 Guardian children's fiction prize with a version of Othello casting the Moor of Venice as a South American football star (with a pop-star wife - remind you of anyone?) beating off hot competition, including Terry Pratchett. There's a role in the book too for journalist Paul Faustino who has appeared in Peet's other football-themed books, e.g. Keeper. I must confess I haven't read the football titles, but I have read the wartime adventure, Tamar, which I found absolutely gripping so I know he's an excellent story-teller.