A longlist of 22 novels for the Man Booker Prize has just been announced, and the favourite to win the literary world's most prestigious award is Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

British bookies William Hill have set the odds for Cloud Atlas at 3/1. "I am in no doubt it will go on to win," said spokesman Graham Sharpe, quoted in The Scotsman newspaper. "I have never quoted a book at shorter odds at this stage of the competition."

Joint second favourites at 10/1 are Allan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty, Nicholas Shakespeare’s Snowleg, Nicola Barker’s Clear and Susanna Clarke’s historical fantasy masterpiece Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

The longlist was whittled down from a total of 127 entries, and will be further reduced to a shortlist of six on 21 September. The winner will be announced on 19 October.

The Guardian ran a witty piece on the judging process by judge Rowan Pelling. Writing just before the longlist was revealed, she said:

Inevitably we will disappoint many editors whose self-deluding ardour on behalf of favoured authors can prove limitless. I barely suppressed the desire to write to one publisher, "It is for the judges and readers to decide whether or not this book is 'a masterpiece' - especially when parts of it sound like a berserk 98-year-old colonel firing off letters to the Daily Telegraph."

Anyway, here’s the list. One of these writers is going to be NZ$135,000 richer in a couple of month's time:

Chimamanda Ngozi Purple Hibiscus
Nadeem Aslam Maps for Lost Lovers
Nicola Barker Clear: A Transparent Novel
John Bemrose The Island Walkers
Ronan Bennett Havoc, In Its Third Year
Susanna Clarke Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Neil Cross Always The Sun
Achmat Dangor Bitter Fruit
Louise Dean Becoming Strangers
Lewis Desoto A Blade of Grass
Sarah Hall The Electric Michelangelo
James Hamilton-Paterson Cooking with Fernet Branca
Justin Haythe The Honeymoon
Shirley Hazzard The Great Fire
Alan Hollinghurst The Line of Beauty
Gail Jones Sixty Lights
David Mitchell Cloud Atlas
Sam North The Unnumbered
Nicholas Shakespeare Snowleg
Matt Thorne Cherry
Colm Toibin The Master
Gerard Woodward I'll Go To Bed at Noon