The Inheritance of Loss, Michael Longley, and City of Laughter

That fateful, frantic week in the literary calendar when all the speculation comes to an end and the rewards are finally given out has come and gone.

Sadly Book Notes must report that both the Man Booker and the Nobel Literature prize ceremonies were limp affairs in comparison to the last-minute drama and fall-on-your face shocks of 2005. As was expected, Kiran Desai scooped the £50,000 Booker Prize for The Inheritance of Loss. A tale of the personal consequences of migration and globalisation, Desai's novel was generally thought to be an intelligent – but hardly groundbreaking – exploration of its subject and a conservative choice on behalf of the judges.

Meanwhile in Stockholm, there was even less surprise at the announcement that Orhan Pamuk has become the first Turkish writer to win the Nobel prize. Although there was some minor outrage from Turkish groups who claimed that Pamuk had exploited their culture for his own ends, the international literary community has welcomed his laureateship. The 54-year-old author of Istanbul, The White Castle and The Black Book had been the favourite to win last year before the Swedish Academy decided to award the Prize to Harold Pinter.

Drawing history

The art of the political cartoon is one that has been in decline for many years. While old masters like Gerald Scarfe and Martin Rowson still demonstrate the power of their craft in the British press, there are few new talents who can match them for their killer instinct. Young artists have forgotten that a simple line drawing with the right message can be a very formidable thing. Disbelievers should take a look at a lavish new book called City of Laughter by Vic Gatrell, which looks at the mighty art of 18th-century satirical illustrations.

This massive 700-page tome is an erudite critical assessment of the golden age of political cartoons and also contains 289 finely printed colour illustrations. These scandalous caricatures, which were distributed to coffee houses and taverns across England, were so feared by politicians and public figures that laws were passed to ban them. Most notorious were those of Scottish artist James Gillray whose image of the bloated Prince of Wales gorging himself and Pitt the Younger farting money are still shocking today. Open this book and relive the days when high art joined forces with low humour to bring down society.

Northern Verse

With the peace talks in Northen Ireland making headlines around the world, Book Notes considers this the ideal time to honour one of Ireland's most accomplished poets. One of the few Irish champions of verse to achieve an international reputation, Michael Longley has been a published poet for over 35 years. During that time, Longley has developed a form of poetry which draws on both ancient and modern history as well as personal experience in an attempt to explain and escape the Troubles.

Now publishers Jonathan Cape have celebrated Longley's mighty work by bringing together the very best of his poems in a 400-page collected edition. Readers will find a selection of Longley's finest poems taken from both his early classic collections like No Continuing City, The Echo Gate and Gorse Fire and his more recent acclaimed volumes such as The Weather in Japan and 2004's Snow Water. Wonderful poems now on the school curriculum like 'Ceasefire' and 'Wounds' sit side-by-side with some of Longley's less well-known but equally rich material. Also included in the volume are Longley's verse letters to his friends and fellow poets. This is a book to treasure.