jgb sites
Ballardian
JGB Mailing list
JGB Book Cover collection: Rick McGrath
JG Ballard: 20th Century Chronicler
:: new JG Ballard: Miracles Of Life
JGB's autobiographical memoir, is now available
Buy Miracles Of Life at Amazon.co.uk
'Miracles of Life' opens and closes in Shanghai, the city where J.G.Ballard was born, and where he spent the most of the Second World War interned with his family in a Japanese concentration camp. In the intervening chapters Ballard creates a memoir that is both an enthralling narrative and a detailed examination of the events which would profoundly influence his work. Beginning with his early childhood spent exploring the vibrant surroundings of pre-war Shanghai, Ballard charts the course of his remarkable life from the deprivations and unexpected freedoms of the Lunghua Camp to his return to a Britain physically and psychologically crippled by war. He explores his subsequent involvement in the dramatic social changes of the 1960s, and the adjustments to life following the premature death of his wife. In prose displaying his characteristic precision and eye for detail, Ballard recounts the experiences which would fundamentally shape his writing, while simultaneously providing an striking social analysis of the fragmented post-war Britain that lies behind so many of his novels. 'Miracles of Life' is an utterly captivating account of an extraordinary writer's extraordinary life.
jgb links
JG Ballard - Kingdom Come Interview
Easily the best interview with JG Ballard after the recent publication of Kingdom Come was done by Simon at Ballardian.com
Iain Sinclair On JGB
Excellent and extensive interview with Iain Sinclair about Ballard over at Ballardian.com
JG Ballard: Kingdom Come
More info on JGB's new novel, Kingdom Come, which is due out on 4th September: Amazon now features the cover art for Kingdom Come, while the HarperCollins website FireAndWater.com mentions that there will be two events which Ballard will presumably be attending:
Thu 14 September - Institute of Education, London, WC1
There's no other info about the events on the Harper site at the moment, unfortunately.
JGB on Empire Of The Sun
JGB on writing Empire Of The Sun and the subsequent Spielberg film - a brilliant piece in The Guardian:
"During the 1960s, the Shanghai of my childhood seemed a portent of the media cities of the future, dominated by advertising and mass circulation newspapers and swept by unpredictable violence. But how could I raise this Titanic of memories? Brought up from the sea bed, the golden memory hoard could turn out to be dross. Besides, there are things that the novel can't easily handle. I could manage my changing relations with my parents, my 13-year-old's infatuation with the war, and the sudden irruption into our lives of American air power. But how do you convey the casual surrealism of war, the deep silence of abandoned villages and paddy fields, the strange normality of a dead Japanese soldier lying by the road like an unwanted piece of luggage?
I waited 40 years before giving it a go, one of the longest periods a professional writer has put off describing the most formative events in his life. Twenty years to forget, and then 20 years to remember. There was always the possibility that my memories of the war concealed a deeper stratum of unease that I preferred not to face. But at least my three children had grown up, and as I wrote the book I would never have to think of them sharing the war with my younger self." [Guardian]
Synopsis Of New JGB Novel
There's now a synopsis for JGB's new novel Kingdom Come on Amazon: "This is a new masterpiece of fiction from J. G. Ballard which asks, could Consumerism turn into Facism? Richard Pearson, unemployed advertising executive and life-long rebel, is driving out to Brooklands, a motorway town on the M25. A few weeks earlier his father was fatally wounded at the Metro-Centre, a vast shopping mall in the centre of this apparently peaceful town, when a deranged mental patient opened fire on a crowd of shoppers. When the main suspect is released without charge thanks to the dubious testimony of self-styled pillars of the community - including Julia Goodwin, the doctor who treated his father on his deathbed - Richard suspects that there is more to his father's death than meets the eye, a more sinister element lurking behind the pristine facades of the labyrinthine mall. Determined to unravel the mystery, Richard soon realises that the Metro-Centre, with its round-the-clock cable channel and sports clubs, lies at the very heart of his father's death. Consumerism rules the lives of everyone in the motorway towns and feeds the cravings of this bored community with its desperate need for something new, whatever the cost. Riots frequently terrorise the streets, immigrant communities are set upon by roving bands of hooligans and sports events mushroom into jingoistic political rallies. Gradually, Richard finds himself drawn into this world, caught up in the workings of the mall, exposed to the insides of the consumer dream, and starts upon dismantling this wayward vision his advertising career helped to found! In this gripping, dystopian tour de force, J.G. Ballard holds up a mirror to middle England, reflecting an unsettling image of suburbia and revealing the darker forces at work beneath the gloss of consumerism and flag-waving patriotism."
JGB on Cronenberg's A History Of Violence
JGB reviews Cronenberg's new film in the Sydney Morning Herald: "David Cronenberg's films are full of images that make us recoil. But what we are really trying to hide from, writes J. G. Ballard, is the messy business of being alive.
Are we all, without realising it, taking part in a vast witness protection program? Did we observe, at some time in the distant past, a deeply disturbing event in which we were closely implicated? Were we then assigned new identities, new personalities, fears and dreams so convincing that we have forgotten who we really are?
These questions crowded my head as I watched A History of Violence, a film as brilliant and provocative as anything David Cronenberg has directed. All Cronenberg's films make us edge back into our seats, gripped by the story unfolding on the screen but aware that something unpleasant is going on in the seats around us." [Read the full review]
New JG Ballard novel in September 2006
Kingdom Come is the title of the new JGB novel, due out on September 4th from Fourth Estate. There is a skeletal Amazon page at the moment with no extra information save that the hardback is 304 pages.
Rage Of Treason: JGB and V.Vale Interviews
Interesting piece from Graham Rae that contains a brief JGB interview re the Conversations book and a more lengthy one with the book's editor, V.Vale, plus Rae's own take on Ballard, at LauraHird.com
Age of unreason: 2004 Ballard interview
In this wide-ranging interview, JG Ballard talks to Jeannette Baxter about globalisation and terrorism, government and the media, the internet and intimacy. The Guardian.
Bruce Sterling on JG Ballard
Glorious interview with Bruce Sterling, talking about the impact and influence of JGB on, well, everything [Ballardian]
The Killer Inside
David Cronenberg's films are full of images that make us recoil in horror. But what we are really trying to hide from is the whole messy business of being alive. By JG Ballard [Guardian]
Secrets of the emperor's bunker
JG Ballard applauds Alexander Sokurov's remarkable
film portrait of Hirohito [Guardian]
jgb links archive
Entertaining Violence
Chris Hall talks to J G Ballard about Millennium People, the middle classes and mail order Kalashnikovs
Flight And Imagination
Chris Hall's in-depth conversation with Ballard about Super-Cannes, the darker side of capitalism and the deceptions of reality
Not A Literary Man
Marcos Moure's 1995 interview with Ballard about Rushing To Paradise, amongst other things
Desert Island Disaster
Marcos Moure's review of Rushing To Paradise
Future Shock
Chris Hall's interview with Ballard about the controversy surrounding Crash
JG Ballard: Prophet With Honour
David Livingstone on why Ballard is still one of the most vital writers of the 20th century.
Extreme Metaphor
- Chris Hall's crash course in the writing of J.G. Ballard
Cocaine Nights
David Livingstone's review of Ballard's latest, typically disturbing, novel.
:: JG Ballard's Cold War
Pippa Tandy negotiates relations between the images in Ballard's writing and the visible relics of the Cold War, gathering images from 'the media landscape' and other sources. Tandy presents a vast archaeology/ palaeontology of the Cold War, using Ballard's writing as a field guide to its identification and classification.
JG Ballard's Enlargement Phalloplasty
Kristoph Eggleston applies an innovative Ballard technique to the iconography of Ballard himself, in order to present a perceptive, imaginative look at Ballard's place in the contemporary literary canon.
JG Ballard Live In London
A combined archival transcript of two Q&A sessions Ballard gave to promote Cocaine Nights and the film version of Crash.
JGB's Worst Film
Kill Bill and Look Back In Anger are on Mr B's shit list...
JG Ballard Book Reviews
Allscifi.com's breakdown of several JGB novels
JGB: Literary Enclopaedia profile
Ballard Of An Indignant Man:
2003 Interview with Australian newspaper The Age
Millennium People review: The Spectator
Beck's Futures
Website for new ICA/Becks sponsored art exhibition. JGB has contributed towards the catalogue apparently.
The Worst Is Over. So Was It Worth It?
JGB amongst others gives a short reaction to the end of full-scale conflict in Iraq [Observer]
Saddam Will Not Be Deposed By Sweet Reason Or Sanctions
JGB amongst others gives a short opinion on the pre-war situation in Iraq [Observer]
What's In Your Basket
Slightly surreal interview with JGB about his eating habits [Observer]
Fire And Water: JG Ballard homepage
Harper Collins' biog of JGB and two video interviews
What's The Big Idea
Short interview with JGB for an Observer Magazine feature [Observer]
September 11: One Year On
Article includes comments from JGB [Independent]
Authors attack 'propaganda' of government-sponsored novels
Article includes comments from JGB [Independent]
J. G. Ballard: A Crash Course Into The Future
Independent interview to coincide with release of the Complete Short Stories
The Ballard Of Shanghai Jail
Appalling title aside, a thoughtful, lengthy review from the Observer of the Collected Short Stories
The Dying Fall - the last J. G. Ballard short story
The last one to be published, at any rate. Available in issue 106 of Interzone, the seminal British sci-fi magazine. The issue is a Ballard special and contains much other Ballard material. Copies cost £3.50 including postage (£4 if outside the UK), cheques made payable to 'Interzone' and should be sent to 217 Preston Drove, Brighton BN1 6FL, UK. See the Interzone website for more details.
Empire Of The Slum - Spectator
An apocalyptic post-election JGB interview on the death of England.
JGB on Japanese P.O.W. war reparations
Ballard recently qualified for compensation for being incarcerated during the war - he tells the Telegraph why he's uncertain about it.
J. G. Ballard Real Audio interview
Hear Ballard's dulcet tones courtesy of JGB's Italian publishers.
Writers Talk: Ideas Of Our Time video interview
Large (25 MB) MPEG video of JGB discussing ideas.
The Shopping Mall Psychopath - The Independent
Thomas Sutcliffe's Super-Cannes interview with Ballard
Reviews of Super-Cannes
- The Guardian
- The Observer
- Guardian overview of the critical reaction to Super-Cannes
The Billen Interview - The Guardian
1994 interview with JGB around the publication of Rushing To Paradise.
JG Ballard author page - Books Unlimited
Overview of JGB and links to other Guardian pages
Empire Of The Sun review - The Guardian
Cocaine Nights review - The Guardian
JG Ballard bookcover art
Over 100 images of Ballard bookcovers through the years.
The Assassination Of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered As A Downhill Motor Race
Ballard's 1973 short story from the Evergreen Review, originally published in the Grove Press collection Love And Napalm. Presented alongside Alfred Jarry's "The Crucifixion Considered As An Uphill Bicycle Race"
JG Ballard: Drowned World
In-depth review of Ballard's recently reissued early classic from Infinity Plus ezine
JG Ballard: Steve Double Photogallery
A excellent photo portrait of Ballard by Steve Double. It's the fifth row down, 4th box in from the left. You'll see what I mean.
Ballard interview: Albedo One
Irish SF magazine Albedo One has a few words with Ballard around the publication of The Kindness Of Women
Three book reviews
User's Guide To The Millennium, Running Wild and Cocaine Nights all reviewed by Irish SF magazine Albedo One
JG Ballard: Salon magazine interview
- Ballard discusses the significance of William Burroughs' work and life
JG Ballard: Theatre of Cruelty
Disturb ezine's interview with Ballard around the publication of Cocaine Nights
Airports
Ballard's article for The Observer, September 1997
JG Ballard: BBC Radio 3 interview
David Gale talks to leading thinkers about their radical vision of the future
The Voices Of Time
- A review of Ballard's short story collection first published in 1963
Through The Crash Barrier: A Reading of J.G. Ballard's Concrete Island
In-depth review of Ballard's 1974 novel
Crash: Fine Line Features site
Exclusive Ballard interview, movie stills, news and more
The Elemental Cycle Of JG Ballard
Overview of Ballard's novels The Wind From Nowhere, The Drowned World, The Burning World and The Crystal World
The Atrocity Exhibition: Letters from JG Ballard
Three faxes from Ballard to Jonathan Weiss, director of the film version of The Atrocity Exhibition
The Dark Side of the Equinox: The Crystal World
Lengthy review of Ballard's book
Extremity or Superlative?: High Rise
Lengthy review of the Ballard novel
The Wind From Nowhere
This is for anyone out there, any kindred souls, who might dare to utter the occasional doubt — "Is J.G. Ballard really all that good?"
The Electronic Labyrinth
Ballard's entry in this comprehensive culture index
Books
J G Ballard UK Bookshop
J G Ballard USA Bookshop
