81-year-old M John Harrison claims Booker Prize
The British author wins the £50,000 award for his dystopian satire, becoming the oldest recipient in the prize's history.
By Marco Whitaker ·
M John Harrison became the oldest writer to win the Booker Prize on Sunday. The 81-year-old British author accepted the £50,000 award for his novel The End of Everything.
Harrison has written 13 novels over a 60-year career. His new book is 198 pages long. It was the shortest title on the 2026 shortlist.
The other nominees included Marlon James, Douglas Stuart, Elizabeth Strout, Rebecca Perry, and Luke Kennard. James and Stuart have both won the prize before.
Judges named Harrison as the unanimous choice. The panel included historian Mary Beard, poet Raymond Antrobus, musician Jarvis Cocker, critic Rebecca Liu, and writer Patricia Lockwood.
Beard praised the author's ambition and writing style. She described the novel as a look at current politics through a future lens. She noted that the story leaves readers with a sense of optimism despite its subject matter.
Beard clarified that the award was not a lifetime achievement honor. She stated that Harrison is only 10 years older than her. The panel did not want to celebrate octogenarians, she said.
The novel features a beachcomber and his aunt on the Kent coast. They navigate a society in collapse while facing shapeshifting entities called the iGhetti. A violent event early in the story pushes the characters into a post-moral world.
Harrison writes in short, filmic chapters. He uses dreamlike ambiguity and lets readers fill in the gaps. Beard rejected the idea that the book requires three readings to understand. She called it challenging but enjoyable.
Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize foundation, noted that the rules no longer specify literary fiction. She said all fiction is literary. Harrison is the first winner from the science fiction world.
Harrison said he has worked for 40 to 50 years to shift the balance between genres. He asked why a well-written work of science fiction should not be considered literary fiction. He wanted the book to offer a catastrophe that is impossible to parse.
He cited the collapse of rationality and environmental abandonment as key themes. The novel reflects a world where making factual statements is difficult. Harrison described the story as a disaster about the failure to comprehend.
Harrison is a former rock climber and fell runner. He judged the Booker Prize in 2022. This is the first win for his publisher, Serpent's Tail. He previously won the Arthur C Clarke Award and the Goldsmiths Prize.
