A science-fiction writer from Rugby who edited the books pages of New Worlds in its heyday, wrote about rock climbing and conspiracy-haunted Britain, and at 81 became the oldest winner of the Booker Prize.
Years after an unexplained crisis, Phillip Tennent makes a living collecting what washes up on the Kent coast, until he pulls a shape-shifting object from the water and has to carry it inland.65 It won the 2026 Booker Prize.3
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Michael John Harrison was born on July 26, 1945, in Rugby, Warwickshire, and left Dunsmore School in 1963.1 He worked as a groom for the Atherstone Hunt, as a student teacher and as a clerk in London before turning to writing, and he sold his first story in 1965.12
From 1968 he edited the books pages of New Worlds, the British science-fiction magazine, as literary editor until 1975.16 His first novels appeared in 1971: The Committed Men and The Pastel City, the start of the Viriconium sequence of novels and stories that ran into the 1980s.1 His literary agency, Janklow & Nesbit, says that 1970s and 1980s work, including Viriconium and the space opera The Centauri Device, is still well regarded.9
He lived in the Peak District from 1976 to 1986, and rock climbing became the subject of his novel Climbers, which won the 1989 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.12 He also ghostwrote Fawcett on Rock and, with Jane Johnson, wrote four novels about cats under the name Gabriel King.12 He has reviewed fiction for the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian and the New York Times.2
Light (2002) began a return to science fiction that continued with Nova Swing (2006) and Empty Space (2012).19 Nova Swing won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in Britain and the Philip K. Dick Award in the United States.32
The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again, a novel about conspiracy theory set in contemporary Britain, won the Goldsmiths Prize in 2020.7 In 2023 he published Wish I Was Here, subtitled An Anti-Memoir, and in 2025 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.91 The End of Everything, his 13th novel, won the 2026 Booker Prize; the chair of judges, Mary Beard, said the book “turns you upside down.”35 He said the book offers no hope or closure, but perhaps some kind of relief.4
In order of first publication. Each series is kept together, in reading order, starting where its first book appeared. Titles and first-publication years from the Wikipedia article on Harrison, checked against his publishers' pages; books written with Jane Johnson as Gabriel King and the ghostwritten Fawcett on Rock are left out.167
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Reviews and essays, edited by Mark Bould and Michelle Reid.1
The End of Everything won the 2026 Booker Prize at a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London; at 81 he is the oldest winner, ahead of Margaret Atwood, who was 79 when she shared the 2019 prize.54 The Booker Prize Foundation's chief executive, Gaby Wood, said he is the first winner to come from the science-fiction world itself.3
Riverhead Books published The End of Everything in the United States.6
Serpent's Tail published The End of Everything, his 13th novel, in Britain.15
Born in Rugby, Warwickshire.1
Sells his first story.2
His first novel, The Committed Men, and the first Viriconium novel, The Pastel City, are published.1
Climbers wins the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.21
Light, the first Kefahuchi Tract novel, is published.1
Nova Swing wins the Arthur C. Clarke Award.2
The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again wins the Goldsmiths Prize.7
No new book has been announced; The End of Everything is published by Serpent's Tail in Britain and Riverhead in the United States.5