FACTBOX - Booker Prize winners

LONDON (Reuters) - Author Salman Rushdie won the "Best of the Booker" prize on Thursday to mark the 40th anniversary of one of the world's most prestigious literary awards.

Following are the previous winners of the Booker Prize, which rewards the best novel each year by a writer from Britain, Ireland or a Commonwealth country.

Those shortlisted for the "Best of the Booker" prize are marked with an asterix.

1969 - P.H. Newby/Something to Answer For

1970 - Bernice Rubens/The Elected Member

1971 - V.S. Naipaul/In a Free State

1972 - John Berger/G

1973 - * J.G. Farrell/The Siege of Krishnapur

1974 - * Nadine Gordimer/The Conservationist

- Stanley Middleton/Holiday

1975 - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala/Heat and Dust

1976 - David Storey/Saville

1977 - Paul Scott/Staying On

1978 - Iris Murdoch/The Sea, The Sea

1979 - Penelope Fitzgerald/Offshore

1980 - William Golding/Rites of Passage