English author M. John Harrison has won the 2026 Booker Prize for his novel The End of Everything. At 81, he becomes the oldest winner in the prize’s history. He received £50,000 and a trophy at a ceremony in London on 9 November.
Harrison takes the age record from Canadian author Margaret Atwood, who was 79 when she shared the prize in 2019. His success comes after a writing career lasting six decades. The End of Everything is his thirteenth novel.
The story takes place on the coast of Kent, in south-east England, a few decades into the future. A mysterious disaster and an invasion by beings called the iGhetti have changed society. However, exactly what has happened remains unclear.
The main character, Phillip Tennent, collects strange objects washed up on the beach. He lives with his elderly aunt, Marnie. Their difficult lives become even stranger when Phillip discovers something that grows, learns to speak and begins giving orders.
Although this sounds frightening, the novel also contains dark humour. It is a dystopian story, presenting an imagined world where society has become deeply troubled. It also uses satire, humour that criticises politics or human behaviour.
The judges all agreed on the winner. Their chair, historian and broadcaster Mary Beard, praised the novel’s surprising sense of hope despite its disturbing subject. Harrison has explained that current events inspired the book: how do people continue living when their understanding of the world falls apart?
First awarded in 1969, the Booker Prize celebrates fiction originally written in English. Since 2014, writers of any nationality have been eligible, provided their books meet the publication rules. Today, these require publication in the UK and/or Ireland. The author does not have to come from an English-speaking country.