Howard Jacobson leads the Booker Prize race just hours before the shortlist is released, according to bookmaker William Hill.

His comic novel Who's Sorry Now? was given odds of 5-1 when betting on the long prize list closed on Tuesday.

Click here to see the long list

Willam Boyd, Yann Martel and William Trevor follow with odds of 6-1 - but once hotly-tipped Zadie Smith has fallen to 7-1 for her second novel The Autograph Man.

Howard Jacobson: Provides 'intentional laughs'

William Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe said: "Howard Jacobson is the early favourite and at least his book will give readers a laugh intentionally, unlike some contenders which will do so unintentionally."

Jacobson's The Mighty Waltzer won the P G Wodehouse Award in 2000.

Boyd won the Sunday Express Book of the Year for The Blue Afternoon in 1993, while Yann Martel has already won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction for his Booker contender Life of Pi.

William Trevor, born in 1928, has received many literary awards since his first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, was published in 1958.

'Range'

Other well-known authors on the long list include previous Booker winner Anita Brookner, on the list for The Next Big Thing, and Will Self, who 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."

William Boyd is another front-runner at 6-1

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.

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.

Back to top

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)