M. John Harrison, aged 81, wins the 2026 Booker Prize
He is the oldest ever winner of this prestigious award
M. John Harrison has become the oldest ever winner of the Booker Prize, winning the prestigious literary award for his post-apocalyptic novel *The End of Everything*.
Harrison, aged 81 – who has built up a cult following over the course of his 60-year career – was announced as the winner of the prize, which is worth £50,000, during a ceremony held on Monday in London.
‘The End of Everything’ is set in the years following a mysterious catastrophe that brought about the collapse of British society as we know it. The novel has provoked mixed reactions amongst readers; one critic described it as ‘gloomy yet brilliant’ as well as ‘dreamlike and unsettling’.
Dame Mary Beard, chair of the Booker Prize judging panel, said: ‘It’s a demanding read, but some of the best fiction is precisely the kind that presents challenges.’
Harrison began writing in the 1960s and has published 13 novels, five collections of short stories and an ‘anti-memoir’. He has now overtaken Margaret Atwood to become the oldest ever winner of the Booker Prize.
