McEwan's novella top of the list for Man Booker

Ian McEwan was the runaway favourite last night to win a second Man Booker Prize for his novella On Chesil Beach. If he takes the coveted award in the autumn, McEwan will join the Nobel laureate J M Coetzee and Peter Carey as one of only three authors to have won the title twice.

The atmospheric story of a young couple's unconsummated wedding night, set in the early Sixties against the gentle Dorset seascape, was among 13 titles to make it on to this year's longlist.

The bookmakers William Hill made Nicola Barker's much admired Darkmans an early second favourite with Mohsin Hamid's post September 11 allegory of east-west relations set in New York was third. Also on the list is the Orange longlisted Catherine O' Flynn, with What Was Lost.

The chair of the judges, Howard Davies, said the 13 had been whittled down from 92 submitted for the prize. Of those, the judges called in a total of 18 for further reading.

The longlist will now be cut down to a shortlist of six in September and the eventual winner announced at a ceremony at Guildhall in London on 16 October.

Mr Davies praised the quality of this year's entries. "This year's longlist is very diverse, with four first time novelists as well as some more familiar names. All the books chosen are well-crafted and will appeal to a wide readership," he said.

This year's judging panel includes the poet Wendy Cope, author Giles Foden, biographer Ruth Scurr and actress Imogen Stubbs.

The youngest writer to be longlisted this year is 33-year-old Edward Docx, who performed a version of "Teenage Kicks" at the launch of his book Self Help at the Cobden Club earlier this year.

Also making his debut is Peter Ho Davies, included in Granta's 2003 list of best young British writers, for his widely praised wartime novel The Welsh Girl.

But there is experience as well as youth. Veteran writer and former Booker judge AN Wilson, also makes it on to the long list with Winnie & Wolf and is highly fancied by the bookies to secure his first win.

Lloyd Jones, became the first New Zealand writer to win the Commonwealth Writers prize - previous winners Andrea Levy and Peter Carey - in 18 years for his novel Mister Pip, collecting £10,000 at the Calabash Literary Festival in Jamaica in May. Judges described it as a "mesmerising story showing how books can change lives in utterly surprising ways."

The inclusion of On Chesil Beach, which resulted in the author being forced to return some pilfered rocks to the World Heritage Site after he admitted keeping them on his mantle piece, was not without controversy.

Some commentators speculated that, at just 163 pages, it was too short to qualify for Britain's best-known literary prize.

However, it was Mc-Ewan's fourth novella, one of which, The Comfort of Strangers, at 125 pages had also been shortlisted. The other, the 175-page Amsterdam, won in 1988. On Chesil Beach is also considerably longer than the shortest Booker Prize winner so far. Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald, which won in 1979, could boast only 132 pages of text.

McEwan was also shortlisted in 2001 for Atonement. which is being made into a film with Keira Knightley.

THE BOOKS

Darkmans Nicola Barker

The third of the author's visionary epics set in the modern-day Thames Gateway

Self Help Edward Docx

An Anglo-Russian family are begrudgingly reunited and caught up in a web of love, sex and art

The Gift Of Rain Tan Twan Eng

A lonely teenager finds comfort in an unusual relationship with a diplomat

The Reluctant Fundamentalist Hamid Moshin

A successful Pakistani-New Yorker finds their life is shattered by the events of 11 September

Animal's People Indra Sinha

A young boy crippled by an American chemical company explosion in India becomes entangled in a dark world of life-or-death intrigue

The Welsh Girl Peter Ho Davies

A young barmaid in wartime Wales challenges her neighbour's hatred for the British

Winnie & Wolf AN Wilson

The relationship between Winifred Wagner and Adolf Hitler as seen through the eyes of an English secretary

The Gathering Anne Enright

The story of a dysfunctional family as seen through the eyes of three generations growing up in Dublin

Mister Pip Lloyd Jones

While a young girl waits for war to arrive from the other side of her South Pacific island, a reclusive teacher introduces her to Dickens

What Was Lost Catherine O'Flynn

Secret stories of those who shop and work at Green Oaks shopping centre

On Chesil Beach Ian McEwan

Trauma of a honeymoon in Dorset on the brink of the sexual revolution

Gifted Nikita Lalawani

A humorous portrayal of a young, gifted Asian girl growing up abroad

Consolation Michael Redhill

New World historical quest sees loved ones consoled by mysteries of the past