Nagi Maehashi, John Farnham and Richard Scolyer win at book awards

Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTin Eats has won for illustrated book of the year at the Australian Book Industry Awards, beating fellow cook Brooke Bellamy and others to the prize a week after accusing Bellamy of copying two of her recipes.

It’s the second year in a row that Maehashi, a contributor to this masthead, has won the award, this time for her cookbook Tonight. Bellamy’s Bake with Brooki was on the shortlist in the same category.

Maehashi accused Bellamy last week of plagiarism, arguing she was forced to go public after six months of unsuccessfully trying to reach an agreement with Bellamy’s publisher Penguin. Both Penguin and Bellamy, who owns three cafes in Brisbane, denied the allegations, and the dispute is unresolved. Penguin, meanwhile, won the title of best publisher for the fourth time in five years.

John Farnham was the big winner at the awards, which were announced in Melbourne on Wednesday evening, as he took home the overall award for book of the year, as well as audiobook of the year and biography of the year for The Voice Inside, written with filmmaker Poppy Stockell. Having nearly died during surgery for throat cancer in 2022, Farnham is unsure whether he’ll sing again.

World-renowned pathologist Richard Scolyer was awarded social impact book of the year for Brainstorm, which tells the story of his life during revolutionary brain cancer treatment. Co-written with Garry Maddox, a journalist with this masthead, the book provides extraordinary insight into living with a terminal illness.

Maddox brings an intimate perspective: Scolyer’s pioneering immunotherapy treatment helped save him when he was diagnosed with metastasised melanoma.

Gina Chick took home the Matt Richell award for new writer of the year for her autobiography We Are the Stars, which she describes as “a misfit’s story of love, connection and letting go”.