It's Australia Day down under and the Aussies are enjoying it in the traditional way - humiliating England in a cricket match.

It seems appropriate therefore to complete the global review of our bestsellers with Pan Macmillan Australia's top ten.

Guinness World Records 2007

The Valley - the latest from Australia's highest selling female writer.

My Story - Schapelle Corby's chilling story of her imprisonment in a Bali jail.

The Great War - Les Carlyon's  new classic history has sold over 90,000 copies in hardback in Australia - how many serious history books achieve those numbers proportinately anywhere else in the world?

Cat on the Mat is Flat by the brilliantly funny Andy Griffiths.

Circle of Flight by the best-selling author for teenagers ever in Australia, the legendary John Marsden.

Cat O'Nine Tails  - the first Pom in the list - Jeffrey Archer on top short story form.

The Unknown Terrorist - a simply brilliant novel from Richard Flanagan.

Seven Ancient Wonders from Matthew Reilly, Australia's (and progressively the world's) leading adventure writer.

Triumph of the Sun by the ever popular Wilbur Smith.

I reckon that side would beat any team in the world and, in addition to the authors, the success is down to exceptional publishing people. I have a nasty feeling that the Pan Macmillan Australia publishing team would also beat the current England team at cricket too.

And while on the subject of publishing teams, last night we had a very special party on our Kings Cross offices. It was to celebrate the careers of two of our top management team who are retiring. This blog would become very boring if I recorded and commented on every retirement but Mike Barnard and Geoff Todd deserve special mention. Neither of them has featured heavily in the pages of the Bookseller. Neither claims to have the secret of publishing. Neither is interested in bullshit. Betwen them (for over thirty years each) they have ensured that the machine which makes Macmillan tick is in good working order. The accounts come out on time and are accurate, royalties are paid, books are produced beautifully and economically, offices function and conform to the law, IT systems work and don't cost the earth, distribution is the best in the industry. Since I joined Macmillan, I've had to worry about many things but I've also known I could trust the machine to function because it had two such high-quality operators. They are also exceedingly decent and fun people. Thanks guys.