Forget the Oscars and the Brit Awards, at what is described as " a glittering awards ceremony in the London Hilton, the British Book Awards were presented last week. And the winner in the Independent Bookseller of the Year cue envelope tearing - was none other than Fred Hanna of Nassau Street, the first Irish winner. Fred himself has worked there for more than 40 years and accepted the award on behalf of his shop and its staff.

According to Mr Hanna: "At a time when the Dublin retail scene in particular resembles more and more a UK high street, it is important that indigenous Irish retailers are recognised as being as good as and sometimes better than their UK counterparts."

There has been a bookshop on the Nassau Street site since 1840 and it was taken over by Fred Hanna's grandfather in 1907. And we're assured that there were no buckets of water flying around at the ceremony . . .