Tea cosy title in running for Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year

The shortlist for the humorous literary prize for the most peculiar titles published in the last year also includes books about pencils and goblinproofing

The prize was dreamed up by The Bookseller at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1978. Last year's winner was Cooking with Poo, a Thai cookery book by Saiyyud Diwong.

This year's shortlist is:

• How Tea Cosies Changed the World by Loani Prior

• God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis by Tom Hickman

• Lofts of North America: Pigeon Lofts by Jerry Gagne

• Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop by Reginald Bakeley

• How to Sharpen Pencils by David Rees

• Was Hitler Ill? by Hans Joachim Neumann and Henrik Eberle

The winner, to be anounced on 22 March, will get a bottle of claret.

Are there any outstanding candidates for this prize which, in your opinion, should have made the shortlist?

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