MARK Haddon's multiple award-winning novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which is based in Swindon, has failed to make a list of the top 50 "must-read" contemporary books.

This is despite the fact the bestseller has been feted with a string of wards including the Whitbread Book of the Year, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, the Whitbread first novel prize, the WH Smith Children's Book of the Year award and the Waterstones' Literary Fiction Award.

The list was compiled by the organisers of the Orange Prize for Fiction from a poll of book lovers attending the Hay-on-Wye literary festival.

Best-sellers such as Captain Corelli's Mandolin, High Fidelity and even Jilly Cooper's bonkbuster Riders are all included, but there is no room for Harry Potter.

While children's author Jacqueline Wilson makes the list with The Story of Tracey Beaker, none of JK Rowling's five Harry Potter books is included.

There is also no space for last year's Booker winner, DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little, Monica Ali's Brick Lane or Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding.

Mark Haddon's novel tells the story of a boy with Asperger's Syndrome, a condition related to autism, with its most memorable scene being set at Swindon railway station.

Other books to make the list are White Teeth by Zadie Smith, Money by Martin Amis, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, The Secret History by Donna Tartt and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh.

Orange Prize co-founder Kate Mosse said: "Usually, "must read" lists focus on classics, therefore the dead tend to do better than the living. In keeping with the Orange Prize's aim to support contemporary writers, we therefore decided to ask male and female readers which books by living writers they would nominate as an essential read."

The winner of the £30,000 Orange Prize for women writers is to be announced tomorrow.

The shortlisted books are Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard, Small Island by Andrea Levy, Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ice Road by Gillian Slovo and The Colour by Rose Tremain.