Rushdie favoured by bookies to win Best of Booker prize

India-born Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is the bookies' favourite to win the 'Best of Booker' prize that will be announced this month to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the prestigious award.

Latest odds published today by bookmakers Ladbrokes show that Midnight's Children, the Booker winner for 1981, is the top favourite with 4/1 odds to win the literary prize.

This is the second time that a celebratory award has been created for the prize. In 1993, on the 25th anniversary, Rushdie won the Booker of Bookers with Midnight's Children.

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, winner of the 1992 Booker, is placed second at 7/1, while another Indian origin author Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss (2006) has 10/1 odds.

William Hill, another major bookmaker, places the second highest odds on Midnight's Children, while The Life of Pi by Yann Martel (winner of 2002), is placed at the top with odds at 4/1.

The God of Small Things by Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy, the 1997 winner, has 7/1 odds placed against it.

The 'Best of the Booker' will honour the best overall novel to have won the prize since it was first awarded on April 22, 1969. In all, 41 novels are eligible for the award.

For the first time, 'The Best of the Booker' will be inviting the public to help decide on which novel deserves to take this prestigious one-off award.