We've made previous mention of Mark Blake's superb new book, "Pigs Might Fly: The Inside Story Of Pink Floyd" (or "Comfortably Numb" in the US) which has just been published.

The book - which we're really enjoying reading so far - can be ordered from Amazon UK, Amazon.com (US), Amazon Canada, Amazon Germany, or Amazon France. Watch for our review shortly, but in the meantime, Mark has been in touch and offered us a copy of the book to give away to one lucky Brain Damage visitor in our latest free contest...

Drawing on his own interviews with all of the band members, plus almost a hundred new interviews with the group's friends, road crew, producers, designers, former housemates and university colleagues - some of whom have never spoken before - "Pigs Might Fly" ("Comfortably Numb") is from what we've read so far, a superb, incredibly detailed, and essential look at the band's history.

Mark told us: "The way it differs from other Floyd books, is that I wanted to concentrate more on the personalities of the people making the music, and the memories and impressions of those that were around them at the time. This meant trying to speak to as many people as I could. I offer my own take on the music and on some events, but the bulk of the book is based on what I have been told by those that were there at the time. It's very much their story..."

Having been a fan of Pink Floyd since the late '70s ("one of the first gigs I ever saw was The Wall at Earls Court in August 1980") Mark had a good grounding in his subject. There were a couple of things that surprised him though, during his research:

"I went in planning to question some of the myths and stories around Syd Barrett; only to end up encountering even more. Nobody knows or can recall exactly what happened. The discrepancies and contradictions are fantastic, and, I'm afraid, only add to the legend."

He was also surprised to find out "just how integral Rick Wright was to Pink Floyd's sound. It wasn't until you spoke to engineers, producers, ex-managers, ex-band members that I realised just how much other people thought Rick contributed."

Mark's website will be updated soon with more information on the book, and can be found at www.markrblake.com.

Now to the contest - which is NOW CLOSED! We needed you to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with the answer to the following question:

In December of what year was the picture on the cover of the book taken? Clue: it was taken during the infamous Animals cover session... THE ANSWER? 1976

You must use the subject heading of "Mark Blake contest", and include your name and mailing address with your entry. The closing date for entries is 11:59pm (UK) on October 19th - we'll check the entries and draw the lucky winner on the morning of October 20th - so you've only got a week to get your entry in.

Please, only one entry per person (duplicate entries will be deleted) and the winner will be selected by a third party at random from all correct entries.

Good luck to all who enter this great contest, and our thanks to Mark for the book to give away!

UPDATE: The winner of the book is... Bas Swanenberg, from The Netherlands. Well done, Bas, and better luck next time to those who didn't win. More great giveaways coming soon!