Salman Rushdie is the favourite to win the Best of the Booker prize after his novel "Midnight's Children" was shortlisted on Monday for the "greatest of the greatest" award

Six books chosen from the 41 winners of the highly-regarded Booker Prize are up for the award

The Best of the Booker award is to celebrate the prize's 40th anniversary

The second favourite to win is South African-born author JM Coetzee

"Disgrace", which won the 1999 Booker

South African author Nadine Gordimer is shortlisted for "The Conservationist" (1974), while Australian author Peter Carey is nominated for "Oscar and Lucinda" (1988), the first of his two Booker prize winners

"The Ghost Road", by British writer Pat Barker, a winner in 1995, is also on the shortlist

the oldest is "The Siege of Krishnapur" by the late British author JG Farrell, which won the Booker in 1973

A total of 41 books have won the prize since it was launched in 1969, because the award was shared in 1974 and 1992