Rushdie best of the Bookers

SALMAN Rushdie’s novel, Midnight’s Children, has been named the greatest Booker-prize winner of all time.

The novel, the author’s second, wins the title 27 years after its publication, when it was hailed as a masterpiece in postcolonial literature.

Magic realist novel Midnight’s Children won the Booker in 1981 and the Booker of Bookers, the only other time a celebratory award has been created for the prize, in 1993.

Six revered books were in the running for the Best of the Booker, chosen from the 41 winners over the years.

They included Disgrace (1999), the most recent title on the shortlist, by South African-born author JM Coetzee, whom bookies installed as second-favourite to win after Rushdie.

Australian author Peter Carey was in the running for Oscar And Lucinda, which gave him the first of his two Bookers in 1988.

The Siege Of Krishnapur, by late Liverpool-born author JG Farrell (1973); The Ghost Road, by Yorkshire-born author Pat Barker, (1995); and The Conservationist, by South African Nadine Gordimer (1974), were also shortlisted.