[gwynevans]

For the XML in Python, I've found BeautifulSoup to be easy to get started with.

('>>>' is the python command prompt when it's run interactively)
e.g.

>>> from BeautifulSoup import BeautifulStoneSoup
>>> file = open('example.xml')  # your example above with a </entry> appended
>>> soup = BeautifulStoneSoup(file)
>>> soup.title.string
u'The Shadow of the Lion'
>>> soup.findAll('author')
[<author>Lackey, Mercedes</author>, <author>Flint, Eric</author>, <author>Freer, Dave</author>]
>>> soup.findAll('author')[0].string
u'Lackey, Mercedes'
>>> keywords = soup.keywords
>>> keywords.findAll('keyword')
[<keyword>Historical fiction</keyword>, <keyword>Fantasy fiction</keyword>, <keyword>16th century</keyword>, <keyword>Science fiction</keyword>]
>>> [k.string for k in keywords.findAll('keyword')]
[u'Historical fiction', u'Fantasy fiction', u'16th century', u'Science fiction']
>>>