Before Tuesday night, the author Samantha Harvey had got used to thinking of herself as a bit of an underdog. “It’s not out of self-pity, but I definitely saw myself as being on the periphery,” she says.

"Heavens above! Finally a Booker prizewinner that we can all get behind," said Johanna Thomas-Corr in The Times. Samantha Harvey has won this year's coveted literary award with her novel, "Orbital". It's the first book set in space to scoop the prize ...

Most bets were on Percival Everett’s “James,” but the judges chose Harvey’s “beautiful, miraculous” novel, which is set aboard a space station.