Six books are in the running for the prize, chosen from the 41 Booker winners over the years.

The award will celebrate this year's 40th anniversary of the Booker Prize, which was launched in 1969.

A win for Rushdie would be a treble for the acclaimed author, who won the Booker prize for Midnight's Children, his second novel, in 1981.

He won the Booker of Bookers – the only other time a celebratory award has been created for the prize – for Midnight's Children in 1993.

The most recent book on the shortlist is Disgrace, which won the Booker in 1999, by South African-born author JM Coetzee.

Bookmakers have made Coetzee, who emigrated to Australia in 2002 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2003, second favourite to win.

The oldest novel is The Siege of Krishnapur, which won the Booker in 1973, by the late Liverpool-born author JG Farrell.

The Ghost Road, by Yorkshire-born author Pat Barker, a winner in 1995, has also been shortlisted.

Australian author Peter Carey is in the running for Oscar and Lucinda (1988), which gave him the first of his two Booker prize wins. South African author Nadine Gordimer is shortlisted for The Conservationist (1974).

Bookmakers immediately installed Midnight's Children to take the prize, which will be voted for by the public.

The shortlist was selected by a panel of judges comprising biographer, novelist and critic Victoria Glendinning, writer and broadcaster Mariella Frostrup and John Mullan, Professor of English at University College London. The overall winner will be announced as part of the London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre on July 10.

A total of 41 authors have won the Man Booker prize, originally the Booker, since its launch in 1969 because in 1974 and 1992 it was shared between two winners.

Rushdie is favourite to win at 5-1 with William Hill, followed by Coetzee (10-1), Barker (20-1), Carey (25-1), Gordimer (40-1) and Farrell (80-1).