London- Salman Rushdie, the Anglo-Indian author who recently received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, Thursday won a special award marking the 40th anniversary of Britain's Booker Prize for his novel Midnight's Children.

Rushdie, 61, was voted winner of the Best of Booker prize by around 8,000 readers in an online vote. He has already won the Booker Prize, Britain's most distinguished literary award, and the Booker of Bookers, for the magic realist novel.

Midnight's Children, Rushdie's second novel after the highly- controversial The Satanic Verses, was published 27 years ago.

The one-off Best of Booker award was created to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Booker Prize.

Rushdie won the Booker Prize for Midnight's Children in 1981, and the Booker of Bookers for the same novel in 1993.

Six books were in the running for the Best of the Booker, chosen from the 41 Booker Prize winners.

They included Disgrace by South African-born author JM Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer's The Conservationist and Oscar and Lucinda by Australian writer Peter Carey. (dpa)