What Was Lost Was Lost" was the winner in the first novel category of the Costa Book Awards. O'Flynn received a £5,000 prize. It was short-listed for the overall Costa Book of the Year Award. The Costa Book Awards' judging panel, chaired by Joanna Trollope, praised the novel for "blending humour and pathos in a cleverly constructed and absorbing mystery." They described the novel as inventive, compelling, and poignant. "What Was Lost" was long-listed for the 2007 Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction. It was short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award. It won the Jelf Group First Novel Award
Newby O. Brantly Newby O. Brantly Newby Odell Brantly (April 13, 1905 – July 19, 1993) was an American inventor, engineer and entrepreneur who founded the Brantly Helicopter Corporation. Born in Newport, Texas, Newby Brantly was the son of William Franklin and Ida Mae Brantly. He married Emma Dean Armstrong in 1932. After she died in 1968, he married Virginia Beth Hackler in 1969 and they had a daughter, Lynne Susan. The National Pilots Association named him 1961 "Pilot of the Year". His inventions, amongst others, were a knitting machine for Penn Elastic Company (US-Patent 2067900 of 1935), a pumpjack (US-Patent 4534168 of