M John Harrison has been named the winner of the 2026 Booker Prize for his dystopian novel The End Of Everything, becoming the oldest winner in the prize's history at the age of 81.
The novel is set on the near-future Kent coast and follows the mysterious invasion of shapeshifting entities amid a societal collapse. It was selected from a shortlist of six books by a judging panel chaired by broadcaster Mary Beard, which also included Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and poet Raymond Antrobus.
Historic win and recognition
Harrison received £50,000 and a trophy presented by last year's winner, David Szalay, during a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London. The win surpasses Margaret Atwood, who was 79 when she won in 2019, making Harrison the oldest recipient of the award.
The novel, described as "a dystopian satire that probes the limits of human understanding," was the shortest book among the contenders at 198 pages. It also marks the first Booker Prize win for its publisher, Serpent's Tail, after five nominations.
Judges' praise and author's reaction
Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, lauded Harrison as "a genuinely original thinker, a genre-defying writer who takes ideas seriously." She added: "The End Of Everything is a novel that knows everything about the novel form, and exactly what it's doing when it breaks it."
Mary Beard said: "In the view of the judges, it was a unanimous decision. This was the book that stood out above all the other amazing, wonderful, and mind-blowing books we were looking at."
Harrison, who was a judge for the Booker Prize in 2022, previously discussed his nomination with BBC Radio 4's Front Row, saying: "I'm very excited that a fiction of this type should be shortlisted, and that it should have been mine. Because I have been working for 40 to 50 years to shift the balance, both as a novelist and as a critic."
Career and context
The End Of Everything is Harrison's 13th novel. He has also published award-winning books such as Nova Swing and Climbers, as well as five short story collections and an "anti memoir."
The judging panel considered 163 books, looking for the best work of long-form fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between October 1 2025 and September 30 2026. Previous winners include Sir Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Bernardine Evaristo and Dame Hilary Mantel.
