To celebrate the announcement of the Booker Prize 2026 shortlist, we’re giving away five bundles containing the six Booker Prize 2026 shortlisted books, a Fortnum’s leather A5 Eau de Nil Notebook worth £80, and a limited-edition, money-can’t-buy Booker Prizes tote bag. 

The Eau de Nil Notebook is designed and bound in England exclusively for Fortnum’s and is presented in refined top grain, soft-feel leather. It features lined pages, raised banding on the spine, Eau de Nil end papers, gold gilded edges and gold embossing on the cover.

The Booker Prize 2026 shortlisted books are: 

• The End of Everything by M. John Harrison 
• The Disappearers by Marlon James 
• Black Bag by Luke Kennard 
• May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry 
• The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout 
• John of John by Douglas Stuart 

Spanning a range of genres – from dystopian fiction to contemporary realism, from campus satire to historical fiction – the shortlisted books explore what it means to be human in an ever-changing world and the communities and events that shape us. Both intimate and epic, personal and political, they provide meditations on familial bonds, identity, shame, love, loneliness, survival and the ultimate unknowability of others. They are moving, pacey, funny, violent, intriguing, horrifying and hopeful.   

Each year the Booker Prize introduces readers to the best sustained works of fiction written in English and published in the UK and Ireland. Mary Beard, Chair of the Booker Prize 2026 judges, said: ‘These novels range from the hilarious to the discomfiting, from the frighteningly strange to the alarmingly domestic, from the powerfully shocking to the intriguingly understated. In them, we meet characters from different countries and different centuries, created by authors 40 years apart, new talent and well-known favourites.’ 

To be in with a chance of winning, simply enter your details below by 12:00 GMT on Thursday, 29 October, 2026. This competition is open to readers anywhere in the world. Winners will be chosen at random.

This competition is a free draw, with only one entry allowed per person, and we reserve the right to disqualify any entries where we suspect one person has used a number of different email addresses. Use or attempted use of any automated or other non-manual entry methods is prohibited.  

The draw is governed by our general rules for competitions, available here, but the following specifics also apply (and take precedence should there be any contradiction or ambiguity):

• There will be five winners, selected at random from entries received before 12:00 GMT on Thursday, 29 October, 2026. Entries received after this time will not be eligible.
• Five winners will receive the six titles (in their current UK editions) on the Booker Prize 2026 shortlist, a Booker Prize tote bag and a notebook from Fortnum & Mason.
• Entrants must be 18 or over, and we reserve the right to ask for proof of age at any point in the competition; prize-winners should be aware of adult themes within the shortlisted titles, particularly if sharing the books with other readers.
• The competition is open to those resident in or outside the UK subject to the proviso that an entry is not eligible if it is from a resident in a country or jurisdiction where this free draw may breach any local law or regulation.
• Winners will be notified by email no later than 12:00 GMT (UK time) on Thursday, 5 November, 2026, and must promptly provide a fully operative postal address for delivery of their prize. If we have not received this within seven days of us notifying a winner, we will have no obligation to deliver the prize and at our sole discretion, we may select a further winner to receive the prize concerned or simply decide not to give it.
• We can only undertake to do what is reasonable in all the circumstances to deliver the prize to a location outside the UK.
• We cannot ship to PO Box addresses; winners are required to provide a bricks-and-mortar/physical address for prize(s) to be dispatched to.
• Bearing in mind, among other things, the value of the prize itself in relation to cost of delivery, we reserve the right (and this is determined at our sole discretion) to ask a winner to provide an alternative address for delivery to a person/location where the cost is proportionate.
• Winners are responsible for any taxes or duties they may have to pay in order to take receipt of their prize.
• While we will use our best endeavours to dispatch prizes as soon as possible once all titles have been received from the publishers. Further, no responsibility can be accepted for prizes delayed or lost.
• We are not responsible for any damage to the prize in the course of delivery; while we will consider a request for a replacement (if available) if the prize arrives in a seriously damaged state, this is solely in our discretion, depending on the particular circumstances.
• These terms and conditions are governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of England & Wales, and the courts of England & Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction in determining any question or issue in relation to them.
• We may in due course and at our sole discretion publicise the names of the winners and their location (in general terms, not specific addresses) on our website and/or social media channels and by entering the competition an entrant agrees to this publicity should they be a prize-winner.