Hermione Lee taught for 20 years at the University of York

She first sat on the literary panel in 1981, when the prize was awarded to Salman Rushdie for Midnight's Children.

Lee's works include an award-winning biography of Virginia Woolf. The Man Booker prize is awarded in October.

Last year's �50,000 prize went to The Sea by novelist John Banville, beating favourite Julian Barnes as well as Zadie Smith and Kazuo Ishiguro.

'Always surprising'

"When I was one of the judges of the Booker Prize 25 years ago, it was a great excitement to award it to a dazzling, little-known writer - Salman Rushdie," Lee said.

"The Man Booker Prize is always surprising. It can change a writer's profile, reward a towering reputation or introduce a brand new novelist to the world. Its influence is enormous."

John Banville won the 2005 Man Booker prize for The Sea

Lee was the first woman to occupy the posts of Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature at Oxford and Professorial Fellow of New College Oxford.

Before taking up the posts she taught for 20 years at the University of York.