Two former winners of the Man Booker prize were on Tuesday included in the longlist for this year’s award, described by judges as “one of the strongest lists in recent memory”.

AS Byatt, who won in 1990, and JM Coetzee, winner in 1983 and 1999 and in the running for an unprecedented hat-trick of victories, have been nominated for their novels The Children’s Book and Summertime.