J.G. Ballard (1930-2009), Novelist

James Graham ('J.G.') Ballard

Sitter in 6 portraits
Novelist and science fiction writer. Ballard was born in Shanghai and educated at Cambridge. Prominent among 'New Wave' science fiction writers, he contributed to New Worlds magazine under Michael Moorcock's editorship (1964-71). Ballard's first novel The Drowned World (1962), was of the 'catastrophe' type, and was followed by others such as High Rise (1975), about technological and human breakdown in a tower block. His short stories, collected together in The Terminal Beach (1964), Vermilion Sands (1971) and others are characterised by powerful, apocalyptic imagery. His autobiography of childhood, Empire of the Sun (1984), was made into a film.