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.

Samantha Harvey won the prestigious award for a wonder-filled novel, set aboard the International Space Station, that ponders the beauty and fragility of Earth.

"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 ...