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
The Answer Man concept in Europe. In Los Angeles, Joe Mansfield was the Answer Man. The spin-off quiz book, "Here's the Answer" by Albert Mitchell, was published by Miles-Emmett in 1946. Distributed by Dodd, Mead & Company, this book featured more than 2000 questions and answers, grouped by subject. Mitchell died October 4, 1954. The series was satirized on television by Ernie Kovacs and Steve Allen. The Kovacs lampoon was a feature titled "The Question Man". In Steve Allen's parody, the answers were given first, followed by the question: A: "Rank and file." Q: "What does it take to get out of an