| 1. Grew up in a family of engineers and developed an early love of reading, including crime fiction, thrillers, fantasy and science fiction from a cupboard of old family books. |
| 2. His father died when he was 13, after which he reportedly felt bored, lonely and unhappy, and often skipped school to read in the local library. |
| 3. An English teacher introduced him to the works of George Bernard Shaw, which increased his interest in writing. |
| 4. Lived in the Peak District for about ten years from 1976 to 1986, where he developed a deep interest in rock climbing. |
| 5. Ghostwrote the autobiography Fawcett on Rock (1987) for British rock climber Ron Fawcett, published under the name Mike Harrison. |
| 6. Collaborated with writer Jane Johnson from 1996 to 2001 on four fantasy novels about cats, published under the joint pseudonym Gabriel King. |
| 7. Collaborated with filmmaker Simon Pummel on the short film Ray Gun Fun (1998). |
| 8. Horror writer Ramsey Campbell praised his writing and described him as one of Britain's most original horror writers. |
| 9. Was the subject of an academic conference, Irradiating the Object: M. John Harrison, organised by the University of Warwick in 2014. |
| 10. Published Settling the World in 2020, a collection drawn from five decades of his writing career. |
| 11. His 2026 Booker Prize win was the first Booker Prize victory for his publisher, Serpent's Tail. |
| 12. The End of Everything was his first Booker Prize nomination. |
| 13. Has been praised by writers including Olivia Laing, Robert MacFarlane and Neil Gaiman as one of the most brilliant prose stylists alive today. |
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