Zadie Smith, William Boyd and Howard Jacobson lead the early nominees for this year's Booker Prize.

Whitbread winner Smith, whose debut novel White Teeth won acclaim in 2001, is joint second favourite to win the prize for her new book The Autograph Man.

Boyd, who won the Sunday Express Book of the Year for The Blue Afternoon in 1993, is also joint second favourite at 5-1 for Any Human Heart.

But it is Jacobson who leads the pack on the longlist released by the judging panel on Monday - with bookmaker William Hill rating him at 4-1 to win with his humorous novel Who's Sorry Now?

William Boyd is another front-runner

20 writers feature on the list for the prize, which will be narrowed down to the shortlisted six on 24 September.

Anita Brookner, who won the 1984 Booker for Hotel du Lac, is on the list for The Next Big Thing, while Will Self features with Dorian.

Chair of the judging panel, Professor Lisa Jardine said: "I believe this is a long list of real range and depth which truly reflects the energy and conviction the judges have brought to their reading."

Others on the judging panel are writer and comedian David Baddiel, novelist Russell Celyn Jones, novelist and analytical psychologist Salley Vickers and The Times's literary editor, Erica Wagner.

Awarded every October, the prize is now officially called the Man Booker Prize, after its new sponsor, investment broker Man Group.

Will Self: Dorian is on the long list

However, it also retains the name of its original sponsor, food distribution firm Booker, which established the prize in 1968.

It is awarded to the best full length novel of the year and is open to authors from the UK, Ireland and the Commonwealth.

The winner receives �50,000, while the six shortlisted authors each get �2,500.

The year's long list was chosen from a total of 130 entries. Of those, 116 were submitted and the remaining 14 were either from the call-in list or were requested by the judges.

The Man Booker Prize 2002 long list:

• Dannie Abse - The Strange Case of Dr Simmonds & Dr Glass (Robson Books)
  
• John Banville - Shroud (Picador)
  
• Joan Barfoot - Critical Injuries (Women's Press)
  
• William Boyd - Any Human Heart (Hamish Hamilton)
  
• Anita Brookner - The Next Big Thing (Viking)
  
• Robert Edric - Peacetime (Doubleday)
  
• Michael Frayn - Spies (Faber and Faber)
  
• Linda Grant - Still Here (Bloomsbury)
  
• Philip Hensher - The Mulberry Empire (UHP)
  
• Howard Jacobson - Who's Sorry Now? (Jonathan Cape)
  
• Yann Martel - Life of Pi (Canongate)
  
• Jon McGregor - If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (Bloomsbury)
  
• Rohinton Mistry - Family Matters (Faber and Faber)
  
• Will Self - Dorian (Viking)
  
• Carol Shields - Unless (4th Estate)
  
• Zadie Smith - The Autograph Man (Hamish Hamilton)
  
• Colin Thubron - To The Last City (Chatto & Windus)
  
• William Trevor - The Story of Lucy Gault (Viking)
  
• Sarah Waters - Fingersmith (Virago)
  
• Tim Winton - Dirt Music (Picador)