British author M. John Harrison has won the 2026 Booker Prize for his dystopian satire The End of Everything, becoming the oldest winner in the history of the award at the age of 81.

Harrison collected the £50,000 prize at a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London on Monday, 9 November. The judges, chaired by historian Mary Beard, chose the 198-page novel unanimously from a shortlist of six.

First science fiction novel to win

The End of Everything is the first work of science fiction to win the Booker Prize. The novel follows Phillip Tennent and his elderly aunt Marnie on England’s south coast, years after social order has broken down and mysterious entities known as the iGhetti have arrived.

The judges said the book “turns you upside down, raises a wry smile and, surprisingly, given the subject matter, leaves you with a twinge of optimism”. They described it as a book that could be read as “a thriller, a mystery, a satire, a dystopia, a road novel, a work of realism”.

Oldest winner, at 81

At 81, Harrison is the oldest author ever to win the prize, two years older than Margaret Atwood was when she won in 2019. The End of Everything was also the shortest novel on this year’s shortlist, at 198 pages, and was chosen from 163 entries.

It is Harrison’s 13th novel and his first Booker win, after a writing career spanning six decades. He beat five other finalists, including previous winners Douglas Stuart and Marlon James and Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout.

Accepting the prize, Harrison said literary awards remained important in a “landscape of industrialised fiction”. He added that he did not want to be hemmed in by the science fiction label, despite the book being the first of its kind to take the award.