M. John Harrison wins the Booker Prize

A long-standing star of the British SFF scene, M. John Harrison, has won the Booker Prize, Britain's most prestigious literary award. His post-apocalyptic novel The End of Everything was not considered a likely winner, but beat out five other finalists to clinch the prize. At 81 years old, he is the oldest winner of the prize in its history and is the first winner to overtly come from the field of science fiction, though some previous authors had at least flirted with the genre, such as Margaret Atwood, Marlon James (who was nominated again this year) and Kazuo Ishiguro.Harrison, born 1945 in Rugby, began publishing short fiction in the mid-1960s. He began working on New Worlds, the magazine at the forefront of the British "New Wave" movement in science fiction, first as a reviewer and then as books editor, working for Michael Moorcock. In the 1970s he began his seminal touchstone work, the Viriconium sequence, starting with The Pastel City. He would return to this sequence…

Commenting on Bubbles has been removed. Why? If you want to talk about this post, write to the author, use the comments on their blog if it has them, or reply with a "RE:" post on your own blog. Suggestions? feedback@bubbles.town