English author M John Harrison has won the 2026 Booker prize for The End of Everything, described by Mary Beard, chair of this year’s judges, as “an apocalypse novel with a twinge of optimism”.

At 81 years old, Harrison is now the oldest ever winner of the literary award, having surpassed Margaret Atwood, who was 79 years old when she shared the prize with Bernardine Evaristo in 2019.

He is also one of the few authors – Hilary Mantel and AS Byatt among them – who served as a Booker Prize judge before going on to win the award themselves. Harrison judged the Booker in 2022.

Harrison’s 13th work of fiction was the shortest book on the shortlist at 198 pages, and takes place in the near-future, in the aftermath of a worldwide catastrophe. The narrative alternates between the story of Phillip, a 38-year-old beachcomber on the southern coast of England, and that of his aunt Marnie, a 70-year-old artist suffering from dementia.

Mary Beard, chair of the judges, described the dystopian satire as a “book that turns you upside down, raises a wry smile – and surprisingly, given the subject matter, leaves you with a twinge of optimism”.

Harrison was announced as the winner of the £50,000 prize at a ceremony held in Old Billingsgate in London on Monday evening (9 November), with last year’s winner, David Szalay, passing on the trophy.

Beard said the panel’s decision to give Harrison the prize was unanimous. She was joined by Pulp musician Jarvis Cocker, literary critic Rebecca Liu, and writers Patricia Lockwood and Raymond Antrobus.

She said the book had been selected both for its “extraordinary expert writing” as well as its “huge ambition”, highlighting the novel’s sense of hope, despite its dystopian setting.

“There are little visions of a future after the catastrophe that the characters are living through, so that I think there is hope in it actually,” she said, elsewhere noting its timeliness given the current period of political upheaval.

It is a book that looks at the “politics of now through the lens of the future”, said the classicist.

The End of Everything came out on top from a shortlist that included works by heavyweight authors such as American author Elizabeth Strout (The Things We Never Say) and previous winners Marlon James (The Disappearers) and Douglas Stuart (John of John), alongside debut author Rebecca Perry (May We Feed the King) and fellow first-time shortlistee Luke Kennard (Black Bag).

On the subject of the shortlist, Beard pushed back robustly on suggestions it focused on a “crisis in masculinity”, stating: “Brilliant books such as these are much more complicated than being about one thing. You might just as well say that Homer’s Odyssey was about a crisis of masculinity in the eighth century BCE.”

Although a first-time Booker Prize nominee, Harrison was among the more established names on the shortlist, with a writing career spanning 60 years and other awards under his belt, such as The Goldsmiths Prize, which he won in 2020 for The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again.

A published author since 1966, he has amassed a cult following over the decades with his sci-fi books that use otherworldly cities and advanced technology to speak about themes including memory, capitalism, and identity.

Growing up in Warwickshire, Harrison read sci-fi writers such as JG Ballard as a child. He broke through in 1971 with his fantasy novel The Past City (1971), with its success yielding two sequels A Storm of Wings (1980) and In Viriconium (1982).

Despite receiving adulation and recognition within the sci-fi space, he has spoken in the past about feeling sidelined by the literary establishment. “I spent 40 or 50 years having a lot of anxieties I didn’t need to have, which would’ve been obviated by having a little bit of success,” he told The Telegraph in an interview earlier this month.

Asked what Harrison’s win says about genre fiction finally coming to be appreciated as “literary”, Beard responded: “It’s a recognition of what some people would see as the blindingly obvious, that you find great books in every genre.”

The End of Everything is the first win for independent publisher Serpent’s Tail. The last time one of its titles was in contention for the award was in 2014 when Karen Joy Fowler’s novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves made it onto the shortlist.

Harrison’s win is the third consecutive triumph for British authors, following on from Szalay’s victory last yeM John Harrison becomes oldest Booker Prize winner at 81 for The End of Everything

English author M John Harrison has won the 2026 Booker prize for The End of Everything, described by Mary Beard, chair of this year’s judges, as “an apocalypse novel with a twinge of optimism”.

At 81 years old, Harrison is now the oldest ever winner of the literary award, having surpassed Margaret Atwood, who was 79 years old when she shared the prize with Bernardine Evaristo in 2019.

He is also one of the few authors – Hilary Mantel and AS Byatt among them – who served as a Booker Prize judge before going on to win the award themselves. Harrison judged the Booker in 2022.

Harrison’s 13th work of fiction was the shortest book on the shortlist at 198 pages, and takes place in the near-future, in the aftermath of a worldwide catastrophe. The narrative alternates between the story of Phillip, a 38-year-old beachcomber on the southern coast of England, and that of his aunt Marnie, a 70-year-old artist suffering from dementia.

Mary Beard, chair of the judges, described the dystopian satire as a “book that turns you upside down, raises a wry smile – and surprisingly, given the subject matter, leaves you with a twinge of optimism”.

Harrison was announced as the winner of the £50,000 prize at a ceremony held in Old Billingsgate in London on Monday evening (9 November), with last year’s winner, David Szalay, passing on the trophy.

Beard said the panel’s decision to give Harrison the prize was unanimous. She was joined by Pulp musician Jarvis Cocker, literary critic Rebecca Liu, and writers Patricia Lockwood and Raymond Antrobus.

She said the book had been selected both for its “extraordinary expert writing” as well as its “huge ambition”, highlighting the novel’s sense of hope, despite its dystopian setting.

“There are little visions of a future after the catastrophe that the characters are living through, so that I think there is hope in it actually,” she said, elsewhere noting its timeliness given the current period of political upheaval.

It is a book that looks at the “politics of now through the lens of the future”, said the classicist.

The End of Everything came out on top from a shortlist that included works by heavyweight authors such as American author Elizabeth Strout (The Things We Never Say) and previous winners Marlon James (The Disappearers) and Douglas Stuart (John of John), alongside debut author Rebecca Perry (May We Feed the King) and fellow first-time shortlistee Luke Kennard (Black Bag).

On the subject of the shortlist, Beard pushed back robustly on suggestions it focused on a “crisis in masculinity”, stating: “Brilliant books such as these are much more complicated than being about one thing. You might just as well say that Homer’s Odyssey was about a crisis of masculinity in the eighth century BCE.”

Although a first-time Booker Prize nominee, Harrison was among the more established names on the shortlist, with a writing career spanning 60 years and other awards under his belt, such as The Goldsmiths Prize, which he won in 2020 for The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again.

A published author since 1966, he has amassed a cult following over the decades with his sci-fi books that use otherworldly cities and advanced technology to speak about themes including memory, capitalism, and identity.

Growing up in Warwickshire, Harrison read sci-fi writers such as JG Ballard as a child. He broke through in 1971 with his fantasy novel The Past City (1971), with its success yielding two sequels A Storm of Wings (1980) and In Viriconium (1982).

Despite receiving adulation and recognition within the sci-fi space, he has spoken in the past about feeling sidelined by the literary establishment. “I spent 40 or 50 years having a lot of anxieties I didn’t need to have, which would’ve been obviated by having a little bit of success,” he told The Telegraph in an interview earlier this month.

Asked what Harrison’s win says about genre fiction finally coming to be appreciated as “literary”, Beard responded: “It’s a recognition of what some people would see as the blindingly obvious, that you find great books in every genre.”

The End of Everything is the first win for independent publisher Serpent’s Tail. The last time one of its titles was in contention for the award was in 2014 when Karen Joy Fowler’s novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves made it onto the shortlist.

Harrison’s win is the third consecutive triumph for British authors, following on from Szalay’s victory last year – the British-Hungarian writer won for Flesh – and Samantha Harvey who won the year before that with her space novel Orbital.

Bea Carvalho, head of books at Waterstones, previously said this year’s shortlist produced a week-on-week uplift of over 1,500 per cent through Waterstones on announcement, with The End of Everything enjoying the highest increase of 740 per cent. That figure is expected to soar following the novel’s win, with the Booker Prize remaining a reliably powerful driver in sales, according to booksellers. 

Source: The Independent  

-Agencies