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.

It was the best-selling book on the Booker Prize shortlist, outselling all three of the previous winners combined

British author Samantha Harvey has won the Booker Prize for her novel "Orbital," which focuses on six astronauts aboard the International Space Station.