A NOVEL about the adventures of a Swindon boy with a form of autism has been nominated for the prestigious Whitbread Prize.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Oxford-based Mark Haddon has received rave reviews.

It recently made the so-called "long list" in the Booker Prize, putting it among the last 23 books in the running from the hundreds of en trants.

The chairman of the judges, Prof John Carey, made it known he was disappointed that the book did not make it to the shortlist of six.

Mr Haddon, who is also a children's author and screenwriter, has explained in interviews that he chose Swindon as the location for his novel after seeing its station. The station is a vital location in the novel. His narrator, Christopher Boone, is 15 years old.

Although he never explicitly acknowledges it, he has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism often characterised by high intelligence, a love of orderliness and logic and a hatred and fear of change.

The novel begins when he stumbles on the body of a neighbour's dog, which has been impaled to the ground with a garden fork.

He decides to investigate in the style of his hero, Sherlock Holmes, only to unearth far more shocking facts than he bargained for.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time shares its place on the Whitbread Prize adult novel shortlist with three other works, and the winner will be announced in January.