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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Annabel Nugent

This Booker Prize shortlist could produce award’s oldest ever winner

Booker Douglas Stuart Marlon James Elizabeth Strout M John Harrison Rebecca Perry Luke Kennard Mary Beard Iris Murdoch Margaret Atwood
Douglas Stuart, Elizabeth Strout, Luke Kennard, M John Harrison, Marlon James and Rebecca Perry are the shortlisted authors for this year’s Booker Prize - (The Independent)

This year’s Booker Prize could produce its oldest ever winner, with 81-year-old sci-fi author M John Harrison among the six shortlisted authors for 2026.

If Harrison were to win for his speculative novel The End of Everything, he would be the oldest winner in the award’s 57-year history – a title currently held by Margaret Atwood who was 79 when she jointly won in 2019 with The Testaments.

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