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
Richard Newby, Baron Newby Yeomen of the Guard. In September 2012, he was appointed Treasury spokesman in the House of Lords. In September 2016 he was elected Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords replacing Lord Wallace of Tankerness. Lord Newby has been married since 1978 to the Rev. Ailsa Ballantyne Newby (née Thomson, now the Canon Residentiary of Ripon Cathedral); they have two sons. According to the House of Lords register of members interests, he jointly owns, with his wife, two flats in Lambeth, London, which are rented out. Richard Newby, Baron Newby Richard Mark Newby, Lord Newby (born 14