J.G. Ballard

1930–2009

English novelist and short-story writer born in the Shanghai International Settlement, where the Japanese interned him and his family during the Second World War. Afterwards he moved to England, attended The Leys School and studied medicine briefly at King’s College, Cambridge. He emerged from New Wave science fiction with apocalyptic novels such as The Drowned World, then provoked controversy with The Atrocity Exhibition and Crash. Later books include High-Rise, The Kindness of Women and Super-Cannes. He died in Shepperton in April 2009. Empire of the Sun, drawn from his wartime childhood, was shortlisted for the 1984 Booker Prize.

Timeline of J.G. Ballard’s life

Works

• Empire of the Sun (1984)

Prizes

• Empire of the Sun — The Booker Prize 1984: Shortlist