A biography of a musical hall act has beaten an academic treatise on the human posterior in the closest race ever for The Bookseller's Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year.
Alan Stafford's Too Naked for the Nazis (Fantom Films)-a title looking into the career of vaudevillian troupe Wilson, Keppel & Betty-garnered 24.8% of the public vote, while Dr Jonathan Allan's Reading from Behind: A Cultural History of the Anus (Zed Books) took home 24.3%. Too Naked for the Nazis' margin of victory is by far the narrowest since the annual Diagram Prize judging switched to public voting via The Bookseller's website in 2000.
Coming in a strong third place was Mark Kirwan-Hayhoe's Transvestite Vampire Biker Nuns from Outer Space: A Consideration of Cult Film (MKH) with 20.7% of the vote. Christopher Herwig's Soviet Bus Stops (Fuel) came in fourth at 14.9%.