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J G Ballard

(James Graham Ballard)

(1930 - 2009)

J.G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, China where his father was a businessman. After the attack on Pearl Harbour, Ballard and his family were placed in a civilian prison camp. They returned to England in 1946. After two years at Cambridge, where he read medicine, Ballard worked as a copywriter and a Covent Garden porter before going to Canada with the RAF.

In 1956 his first short story was published in New Worlds and he took a full-time job on a technical journal, moving on to become assistant editor of a scientific journal, where he stayed until 1961. His first novel, 'The Drowned World', was written in the same year.

Genres: Science Fiction, Historical, Literary Fiction

Series

Empire of the Sun
1. Empire of the Sun (1984)
2. The Kindness of Women (1991)

Novels

   The Drowned World (1962)
   The Wind from Nowhere (1962)
   The Drought (1964)
     aka The Burning World
   The Assassination Weapon (1966)
   The Crystal World (1966)
   Love and Napalm (1968)
   Crash (1973)
   Concrete Island (1974)
   High-Rise (1975)
   The Unlimited Dream Company (1979)
   Hello America (1981)
   The Day of Creation (1987)
   Running Wild (1988)
   Rushing to Paradise (1994)
   Cocaine Nights (1996)
   Super-Cannes (2000)
   Millennium People (2003)
   Kingdom Come (2006)

Omnibus

Matchbook Classics Box Set (2019) (with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jean-Dominque Bauby, Penelope Fitzgerald, Jonathan Franzen, Hilary Mantel, Alexander Masters, Tim O'Brien, Annie Proulx and Lorna Sage)

Collections

   Billenium (1962)
   The Voices of Time (1962)
     aka The Four-Dimensional Nightmare
   Passport to Eternity (1963)
   The Terminal Beach (1964)
   The Impossible Man (1966)
   The Day of Forever (1967)
   The Disaster Area (1967)
   The Overloaded Man (1967)
     aka The Venus Hunters
   Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan (1968)
   The Atrocity Exhibition (1969)
   The Inner Landscape (1969) (with Brian Aldiss and Mervyn Peake)
   Chronopolis (1971)
   Vermilion Sands (1971)
   Low-Flying Aircraft (1976)
   The Best Science Fiction of J. G. Ballard (1977)
   The Best Short Stories of J G Ballard (1978)
   News from the Sun (1982)
   Myths of the Near Future (1982)
   Memories of the Space Age (1988)
   War Fever (1990)
   The Complete Short Stories (2001)
   The Complete Short Stories: Volume 2 (2006)
   The Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard (2009)

Non fiction

   A User's Guide to the Millennium (1996)
   Tacita Dean (2001)
   Quotes (2004)
   Interviews (2005)
   Miracles of Life (2008)
   Extreme Metaphors (2012)

Anthologies containing stories by J G Ballard

Best Tales of Terror (1962)
The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction 12th Series (1963)
Spectrum 3 (1963)
The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction 13th Series (1964)
The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction 14th Series (1965)
The Unfriendly Future (1965)
Best SF 6 (1966)
Nebula Award Stories 1 (1966)
The Playboy Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy (1966)
Dangerous Visions 3 (1967)
Nebula Award Stories 3 (1967)
New Worlds of Fantasy (1967)
     aka Step Outside Your Mind
One Hundred Years of Science Fiction (1968)
The Stars and Under (1968)
Best SF Stories from New Worlds (1969)
Best SF: 1969 (1969)
     aka The Year's Best Science Fiction 3
Mind at Bay (1969)
The Hollywood Nightmare (1970)
Mind in Chains (1970)
The Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus (1973)
Into the Unknown (1973)
Modern Science Fiction (1974)
The Star Book of Horror 1 (1975)
The Best Science Fiction Stories (1977)
Anticipations (1978)
The Golden Age of Science Fiction (1981)
The Slaying of the Dragon (1984)
Top Fantasy (1984)
Afterlives (1986)
The Book of Fantasy (1988)
The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories (1992)
Simulations (1993)
The Ascent of Wonder (1994)
Tales in Space (1995)
The Best of Interzone (1997)
Cyber-Killers (1997)
UFOs (1997)
The Mammoth Book of Fantasy All-Time Greats (1998)
     aka The Fantasy Hall of Fame
The Playboy Book of Science Fiction (1998)
The Road to Science Fiction 5 (1998)
The Unexplained (1998)
Bangs and Whimpers (1999)

Short stories

	1969
	The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill
	The Beach Murders
	The Comsat Angels
	Cry Hope, Cry Fury!
	Danger: Religion! (with Brian Aldiss, Anonymous and Mervyn Peake)
	The Dead Time
	The Death Module
	The Delta at Sunset
	The Gioconda of the Twilight Noon
	The Greatest Television Show on earth
	Having a Wonderful Time
	A Host of Furious Fancies
	The Impossible Man [short story]
	The Intensive Care Unit
	Low-Flying Aircraft [short story]
	Minus One
	Motel Architecture
	Mr F is Mr F
	My Dream of Flying to Wake Island
	News from the Sun [short story]
	A Place and a Time to Die
	The Reptile Enclosure
	The Singing Statues
	Theatre of War
	The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista
	Venus Smiles
	The Volcano Dances
	Zodiac 2000
	Boy in Darkness [short story] (1956) (with Brian Aldiss, Anonymous and Mervyn Peake)
	Prima Belladonna (1956)
	Build-Up (1957)
	The Concentration City (1957)
	Manhole 69 (1957)
	Mobile (1957)
	Track 12 (1958)
	Now: Zero (1959)
	Chronopolis [short story] (1960)
	The Sound-Sweep (1960)
	The Voices of Time [short story] (1960) (with Brian Aldiss, Anonymous and Mervyn Peake)
	Zone of Terror (1960)
	Billenium [short story] (1961)
	Billennium (1961)
	Deep End (1961)
	The Gentle Assassin (1961)
	Studio 5, the Stars (1961)
	The Cage of Sand (1962)
	The Garden of Time (1962)
	The Insane Ones (1962)
	The Watch-Towers (1962)
	The Encounter (1963)
	End-Game (1963)
	Now Wakes the Sea (1963)
	A Question of Re-entry (1963)
	The Screen Game (1963)
	The Subliminal Man (1963)
	The Venus Hunters (1963)
	The Drowned Giant (1964) aka Souvenir		Nebula Awards (nominee)
	The Illuminated Man (1964)
	The Lost Leonardo (1964)
	The Terminal Beach [short story] (1964)
	Time of Passage (1964)
	Storm-Bird, Storm-Dreamer (1966)
	The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D (1967)
	The Recognition (1967)
	The Dead Astronaut (1968)
	The Assassination Weapon [short story] (1969)
	The Atrocity Exhibition [short story] (1969)
	Crash! [short story] (1969)
	The Generations of America (1969)
	The Great American Nude (1969)
	The Killing Ground (1969)
	Love and Napalm: Export USA (1969)
	Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown (1969)
	Plan for the Assassination of Jaqueline Kennedy (1969)
	The Summer Cannibals (1969)
	Tolerances of the Human Face (1969)
	The University of Death (1969)
	Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan [short story] (1969)
	You and Me and the Continuum (1969)
	You: Coma: Marilyn Munroe (1969)
	Say Goodbye to the Wind (1970)
	The Smile (1975)
	The Life and Death of God (1978)
	One Afternoon at Utah Beach (1978)
	The Ultimate City (1978)
	Myths of the Near Future [short story] (1982)		Nebula Awards (nominee)
	Report on an Unidentified Space Station (1982)
	The Object of Attack (1984)
	A Guide to Virtual Death (1992)
	The Message from Mars (1992)

Awards

	Nebula Awards Best Short Story nominee (1966) : The Drowned Giant
	John W Campbell Memorial Award Best Novel nominee (1980) : The Unlimited Dream Company
	Nebula Awards Best Novellette nominee (1983) : Myths of the Near Future [short story]
	James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction Best Book winner (1984) : Empire of the Sun
	The Man Booker Prize Best Novel nominee (1984) : Empire of the Sun
	British Fantasy Society Best Novel nominee (1996) : Cocaine Nights
	Whitbread Prize Best Novel nominee (1996) : Cocaine Nights

Books about J G Ballard

The First Twenty Years (1976) by James Goddard and David Pringle
Earth Is the Alien Planet (1979) by David Pringle
J.G. Ballard (1984) by V Vale
J.G Ballard (1998) by Michel Delville
The Inner Man (2011) by John Baxter

J G Ballard recommends

The Day of the Locust (1939)
Nathanael West
"The best of the Hollywood novels, a nightmare vision of humanity destroyed by its obsession with film."

The Stochastic Man (1975)
Robert Silverberg
"An engaging tale ... fast and literate."

Other People (1981)
Martin Amis
"Powerful and obsessive...Other People is a metaphysical thriller, Kafka reshot in the style of Psycho."

Books of Blood Volume 3 (1986)
(Books of Blood, book 3)
Clive Barker
"A powerful and fascinating writer with a brilliant imagination...Clive Barker [is] an outstanding storyteller."

The Alternative Detective (1993)
(Hob Draconian, book 1)
Robert Sheckley
"[Robert Sheckley is] witty and ingenious... a draught of pure Voltaire and tonic."

The Parson (1995)
Anna Kavan
"Few contemporary novelists could match the fierce intensity of her vision."

Serge Gainsbourg (2001)
Sylvie Simmons
"A highly entertaining biography of the French singer-songwriter and all-round scallywag."

Dining on Stones (2004)
Iain Sinclair
"Brilliantly entertaining... the ultimate road novel... Sinclair is in the fast lane and novelist today can hope to overtake him."

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