Haddon's book has appealed to adults as well as younger readers

Haddon, whose The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the best novel category, is 2/1 to win with bookmaker William Hill.

DBC Pierre is second favourite to win on 27 January with his novel Vernon God Little, which won best first novel.

DJ Taylor, Don Paterson and David Almond are also nominated for the �25,000 prize.

Taylor, one of the Booker judges, won the biography category for Orwell: The Life.

He is 4/1 to win the prize, as is Dundee-born Don Paterson, who took the poetry award for Landing Light.

Haddon interviewed

The children's book award winner, David Almond's The Fire-Eaters, is 9/2.

The prize attracted 468 entries, a record number, including 111 children's books.

Haddon's book was one of the top-selling hardback books over the Christmas period.

A tale about a teenager with a form of autism, it straddles both children's and adult fiction, and has already won two children's fiction prizes.

Whitbread judges wrote "we can think of few readers who could no take no pleasure from this wonderful novel".