J. G. Ballard

J. G. Ballard was born to Edna Johnstone (1905–1998) and James Graham Ballard (1901–1966), who was a chemist at the Calico Printers' Association, a textile company in the city of Manchester, and later became the chairman and managing director of the China Printing and Finishing Company, the Association's subsidiary company in Shanghai. The China in which Ballard was born featured the Shanghai International Settlement, where Western foreigners "lived an American style of life".Pringle, D. (Ed.) and Ballard, J.G. (1982). "From Shanghai to Shepperton". Re/Search 8/9: J.G. Ballard: 112–124. {{ISBN|0-940642-08-5}}. At school age, Ballard attended the Cathedral School of the Holy Trinity Church, Shanghai.{{cite web|url=http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/features/Books__Film-Book_features/11260/JG-Ballard-in-Shanghai.html|title=JG Ballard in Shanghai|website=Timeoutshanghai.com|access-date=21 May 2018|archive-date=2 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602185521/http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/features/Books__Film-Book_features/11260/JG-Ballard-in-Shanghai.html|url-status=live}} Upon the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), the Ballard family abandoned their suburban house, and moved to a house in the city centre of Shanghai to avoid the warfare between the Chinese defenders and the Japanese invaders.

After the Battle of Hong Kong (8–25 December 1941), the Imperial Japanese Army occupied the International Settlement and imprisoned the Allied civilians in early 1943. The Ballard family were sent to the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Centre where they lived in G-block, a two-storey residence for 40 families, for the remainder of the Second World War. At the Lunghua Centre, Ballard attended school, where the teachers were prisoners with a profession. In the autobiography Miracles of Life, Ballard said that those experiences of displacement and imprisonment were the thematic bases of the novel Empire of the Sun.Ballard, J.G. (4 March 2006). "[http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,1722984,00.html Look back at Empire] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111044214/http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,1722984,00.html |date=11 January 2008 }}". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 April 2009.{{cite web |url=http://www.jgballard.ca/ |title=J.G. Ballard |website=Jgballard.ca |access-date=3 July 2014 |archive-date=4 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130104163735/http://www.jgballard.ca/ |url-status=live }}

Concerning the violence found in Ballard's fiction,Cowley, J. (4 November 2001). "[http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,6121,587000,00.html The Ballard of Shanghai jail] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724145628/http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,6121,587000,00.html |date=24 July 2008 }}". The Observer. Retrieved 25 April 2009.Livingstone, D.B. (1996?). "[http://www.spikemagazine.com/0899ballard.php J.G. Ballard: Crash: Prophet with Honour] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821142454/http://www.spikemagazine.com/0899ballard.php |date=21 August 2016 }}". Retrieved 12 March 2006. the novelist Martin Amis said that Empire of the Sun "gives shape to what shaped him."Hall, C. "[http://www.spikemagazine.com/0697lard.php JG Ballard: Extreme Metaphor: A Crash Course in the Fiction Of JG Ballard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170125020730/http://www.spikemagazine.com/0697lard.php |date=25 January 2017 }}". Retrieved 25 April 2009. About his experiences of the Japanese war in China, Ballard said: "I don't think you can go through the experience of war without one's perceptions of the world being forever changed. The reassuring stage-set that everyday reality in the suburban West presents to us is torn down; you see the ragged scaffolding, and then you see the truth beyond that, and it can be a frightening experience." "I have—I won't say happy—[but] not unpleasant memories of the camp... I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on—but, at the same time, we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time!" In his later life, Ballard became an atheist, yet said: "I'm extremely interested in religion ... I see religion as a key to all sorts of mysteries that surround the human consciousness."Welch, Frances. "All Praise and Glory to the Mind of Man"

In late 1945, Ballard's mother returned to Britain with J. G. and his sister, where they resided at Plymouth, and he attended The Leys School in Cambridge,{{cite web |last=Campbell|first=James|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/14/saturdayreviewsfeatres.guardianreview10 |title=Strange Fiction|date=14 June 2008|work=The Guardian}} where he won a prize for a well-written essay. Within a few years, Mrs Ballard and her daughter returned to China and rejoined Mr Ballard; and, whilst not at school, Ballard resided with grandparents. In 1949, he studied medicine at King's College, Cambridge, with the intention of becoming a psychiatrist.{{cite journal|last=Frick|first=Interviewed by Thomas|date=21 May 1984|title=J. G. Ballard, The Art of Fiction No. 85|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2929/j-g-ballard-the-art-of-fiction-no-85-j-g-ballard|journal=The Paris Review|volume=Winter 1984|issue=94|access-date=21 May 2018}}

File:Fantastic 196207.jpg story "The Singing Statues" took the cover of the July 1962 issue of Fantastic, featuring artwork by Ed Emshwiller.]]

At university, Ballard wrote avant-garde fiction influenced by psychoanalysis and the works of surrealist painters, and pursued writing fiction and medicine. In his second year at Cambridge, in May 1951, the short story "The Violent Noon", a Hemingway pastiche, won a crime-story competition and was published in the Varsity newspaper.{{Cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/40c6c3d5-4163-39ea-b085-0cff9f356266|title=The Papers of James Graham Ballard – Archives Hub|access-date=28 March 2020|archive-date=28 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200328105108/https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/40c6c3d5-4163-39ea-b085-0cff9f356266|url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.ballardian.com/collecting-the-violent-noon-and-other-assorted-ballardiana |title=Collecting 'The Violent Noon' and other assorted Ballardiana |publisher=Ballardian |date=5 February 2007 |access-date=3 July 2014 |archive-date=4 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090204192744/http://www.ballardian.com/collecting-the-violent-noon-and-other-assorted-ballardiana |url-status=dead }} In October 1951, encouraged by publication, and understanding that clinical medicine disallowed time to write fiction, Ballard forsook medicine and enrolled at Queen Mary College to read English literature.{{cite web|url=http://www.qmul.ac.uk/alumni/notablealumni/24997.html|title=Notable Alumni/ Arts and Culture|publisher=Queen Mary, University of London|access-date=8 August 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020112410/http://www.qmul.ac.uk/alumni/notablealumni/24997.html|archive-date=20 October 2014}} After a year, he quit the College and worked as an advertising copywriter,{{cite magazine|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n07/thomas-jones/whisky-and-soda-man|title=Whisky and Soda Man|first=Thomas|last=Jones|date=10 April 2008|pages=18–20|access-date=21 May 2018|magazine=London Review of Books|archive-date=29 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191129100913/https://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n07/thomas-jones/whisky-and-soda-man|url-status=live}} then worked as an itinerant encyclopaedia salesman.{{cite web|url=http://www.ballardian.com/ballards-adventures-in-advertising-1|title='What exactly is he trying to sell?': J.G. Ballard's Adventures in Advertising, part 1|website=Ballardian.com|access-date=21 May 2018|date=4 May 2009|archive-date=22 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422063034/http://www.ballardian.com/ballards-adventures-in-advertising-1|url-status=dead}} Throughout that odd-job period, Ballard continued writing short-story fiction but found no publisher.{{cite news|last=Pringle|first=David|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/19/jg-ballard-obituary |title=Obituary:JG Ballard |date=19 April 2009|access-date=3 June 2014|newspaper=The Guardian|author-link=David Pringle }}

In early 1954, Ballard joined the Royal Air Force and was assigned to the Royal Canadian Air Force flight-training base in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. In that time, he encountered American science fiction magazines, and, in due course, wrote his first science fiction story, "Passport to Eternity", a pastiche of the American science fiction genre; yet the story was not published until 1962.

In 1955, Ballard left the RAF and returned to England,London Gazette, 1 July 1955. where he met and married Helen Mary Matthews, who was a secretary at the Daily Express newspaper; the first of three Ballard children was born in 1956.{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/20/jg-ballard-daughter-mother-couldnt-mention|title=JG Ballard's Daughter on the Mother who Could Never be Mentioned|date=20 June 2014|website=the Guardian}} In December 1956, Ballard became a professional science-fiction writer with the publication of the short stories "Escapement" (in New Worlds magazine) and "Prima Belladonna" (in Science Fantasy magazine).{{cite news|last=Weber|first=Bruce|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/books/21ballard.html|title=J.G Ballard, novelist, Is Dead at 78|date=21 April 2009|access-date=15 October 2014|newspaper=The New York Times|archive-date=10 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010185125/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/books/21ballard.html|url-status=live}} At the New Worlds magazine, the editor, Edward J. Carnell, greatly supported Ballard's science-fiction writing, and published most of his early stories.

From 1958 onwards, Ballard was assistant editor of the scientific journal Chemistry and Industry.{{cite web|last=Bonsall|first=Mike|url=http://www.ballardian.com/jg-ballards-experiment-in-chemical-living|title=JG Ballard's Experiment in Chemical Living|date=1 August 2007|website=Ballardian.com|access-date=1 April 2015|archive-date=18 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418161222/http://www.ballardian.com/jg-ballards-experiment-in-chemical-living|url-status=dead}} His interest in art involved the emerging Pop Art movement, and, in the late 1950s, Ballard exhibited collages that represented his ideas for a new kind of novel. Moreover, his avant-garde inclinations discomfited writers of mainstream science fiction, whose artistic attitudes Ballard considered philistine. Briefly attending the 1957 World Science Fiction Convention in London, Ballard left disillusioned and demoralised by the type and quality of the science-fiction writing he encountered, and did not write another story for a year;{{cite web|url=http://www.jgballard.ca/media/1969_feb_speculation_magazine.html|title=JG Ballard Interviewed by Jannick Storm|website=Jgballard.ca|access-date=1 April 2015|archive-date=16 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016001008/http://www.jgballard.ca/media/1969_feb_speculation_magazine.html|url-status=live}} however, by 1965, he was editor of Ambit, an avante-garde magazine, which had an editorial remit amenable to his aesthetic ideals.{{cite web|url=http://www.jgballard.ca/terminal_collection/jgb_ambits.html|title=JGB in Ambit Magazine|website=Jgballard.ca|access-date=7 April 2015|archive-date=30 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140730101536/http://www.jgballard.ca/terminal_collection/jgb_ambits.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-101436|isbn = 978-0-19-861412-8|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/101436|title = The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year = 2004}}

In 1960, the Ballard family moved to Shepperton, Surrey, where he resided till his death in 2009.{{cite news|last=Clark|first=Alex|title=Microdoses of madness|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/09/fiction.jgballard|access-date=3 October 2014|newspaper=The Guardian|date=9 September 2000|archive-date=6 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006223017/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/09/fiction.jgballard|url-status=live}}{{cite web|last=Smith|first=Karl|title=The Velvet Underground of English Letters: Simon Sellars Discusses J.G. Ballard|url=http://thequietus.com/articles/10226-ballard-extreme-metaphors-simon-sellars-interviewed|website=thequietus.com|date=7 October 2012 |access-date=3 October 2014}} To become a professional writer, Ballard forsook mainstream employment to write his first novel, The Wind from Nowhere (1962), during a fortnight holiday, and quit his editorial job with the Chemistry and Industry magazine. Later that year, his second novel, The Drowned World (1962), also was published; those two novels established Ballard as a notable writer of New Wave science fiction; he also popularized the related concept and genre of inner space.{{Cite book |last=Stableford |first=Brian M. |title=Science fact and science fiction: an encyclopedia |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-97460-8 |location=New York, NY}}{{Rp|pages=415}}{{Cite web |last1=Clute |first1=John |last2=David |first2=Langford |last3=Nicholls |first3=Peter |title=SFE: Inner Space |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/inner_space |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |archive-date=20 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231220183330/https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/inner_space |url-status=live }}{{Cite book |last=Mayo |first=Rob |url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-030-27275-3.pdf |title=Healthy Minds in the Twentieth Century: In and Beyond the Asylum |date=2019-09-16 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-030-27275-3 |editor-last=Taylor |editor-first=Steven J. |language=en |chapter=The Myth of Dream-Hacking and ‘Inner Space’ in Science Fiction, 1948-201 |series=Mental Health in Historical Perspective |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-27275-3 |editor-last2=Brumby |editor-first2=Alice |access-date=5 March 2024 |archive-date=28 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240228192243/https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-030-27275-3.pdf |url-status=live }}{{Rp|pages=260}} From that success followed the publication of short-story collections, and was the beginning of a great period of literary productivity from which emerged the short-story collection The Terminal Beach (1964).

File:Fantastic 196310.jpg story "The Screen Game" (1963)]]

File:If 196303.jpg.]]

In 1964, Mary Ballard died of pneumonia, leaving Ballard to raise their three children, James, Fay and Bea Ballard. Although he did not remarry, his friend Michael Moorcock introduced Claire Walsh to Ballard, who later became his partner."Author J. G. Ballard dies at 78", Deseret News, 20 April 2009, p. A12 Claire Walsh worked in publishing during the 1960s and the 1970s, and was Ballard's sounding board for his story ideas; later, Claire introduced Ballard to the expatriate community in Sophia Antipolis, in southern France; those expatriates provided grist for the writer's mill.{{cite web |last=Self |first=Will |author-link=Will Self |date=15 October 2014 |title=Claire Walsh obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/14/claire-walsh |access-date=22 January 2019 |website=The Guardian}}

In 1965, after the death of his wife Mary, Ballard's writing yielded the thematically-related short stories, that were published in New Worlds by Moorcock, as The Atrocity Exhibition (1970).{{cn|date=March 2025}} In 1967, the novelist Algis Budrys said that Brian W. Aldiss, Roger Zelazny, Samuel R. Delany and J. G. Ballard were the leading writers of New Wave Science Fiction.{{Cite magazine|last=Budrys|first=Algis|date=October 1967 |title=Galaxy Bookshelf|url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v26n01_1967-10_modified#page/n175/mode/2up|magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction|pages=188–194}} In the event, The Atrocity Exhibition proved legally controversial in the U.S., because the publisher feared libel-and-slander lawsuits by the living celebrities who featured in the science fiction stories.{{Cite web|url=https://www.jgballard.ca/criticism/walls_atrocityx_1991.html|title=1991 Science Fiction Eye magazine article on Atrocity Exhibition|website=jgballard.ca|access-date=30 June 2023|archive-date=30 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630221241/https://www.jgballard.ca/criticism/walls_atrocityx_1991.html|url-status=live}} In The Atrocity Exhibition, the story titled "Crash!" deals with the psychosexuality of car-crash enthusiasts; in 1970, at the New Arts Laboratory, Ballard sponsored an exhibition of damaged automobiles titled "Crashed Cars"; lacking the commentary of an art curator, the artwork provoked critical vitriol and layman vandalism.Ballard, J.G. (1993). The Atrocity Exhibition (expanded and annotated edition). {{ISBN|0-00-711686-1}}. In the story "Crash!" and in the "Crashed Cars" exhibition, Ballard presented and explored the sexual potential in a car crash, which theme he also explored in a short film made with Gabrielle Drake in 1971. Those interests produced the novel Crash (1973), which features a protagonist named James Ballard, who lives in Shepperton, Surrey, England.

Crash was also controversial upon publication.{{cite journal | first=Sam | last=Francis | title='Moral Pornography' and 'Total Imagination': The Pornographic in J. G. Ballard's Crash | journal=English | year=2008 | volume=57 | issue=218 | pages=146–168 | doi=10.1093/english/efn011}} In 1996, the film adaptation by David Cronenberg was met by a tabloid uproar in the UK, with the Daily Mail campaigning for it to be banned.{{cite book |last=Barker |first=Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Eph3leyfK2kC |title=The Crash Controversy: Censorship Campaigns and Film Reception |last2=Arthurs |first2=Jane |last3=Harindranath |first3=Ramaswami |publisher=Wallflower Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-903364-15-4 |access-date=15 September 2009 |name-list-style=amp}} In the years following the initial publication of Crash, Ballard produced two further novels: 1974's Concrete Island, about a man stranded in the traffic-divider island of a high-speed motorway,{{cite web|last=Sellars|first=Simon|title=Concrete Island (1974)|url=http://www.ballardian.com/biblio-concrete-island|website=Ballardian|access-date=7 March 2016|date=16 September 2006|archive-date=29 October 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061029172648/http://www.ballardian.com/biblio-concrete-island/|url-status=dead}} and High-Rise, about a modern luxury high-rise apartment building's descent into tribal warfare.{{cite web |last=Sisson |first=Patrick |date=28 September 2015 |title=New Film High-Rise Explores The Symbolism and Terror of Tower Living |url=http://www.curbed.com/2015/9/28/9916680/high-rise-film-jg-ballard |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308073004/http://www.curbed.com/2015/9/28/9916680/high-rise-film-jg-ballard |archive-date=8 March 2016 |access-date=7 March 2016 |website=Curbed}}

Ballard published several novels and short story collections throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but his breakthrough into the mainstream came with Empire of the Sun in 1984, based on his years in Shanghai and the Lunghua internment camp. It became a best-seller,Collinson, G. "[https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/empire-of-the-sun.shtml Empire of the Sun] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040206050139/http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/empire-of-the-sun.shtml |date=6 February 2004 }}". BBC Four article on the film and novel. Retrieved 25 April 2009. was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. It made Ballard known to a wider audience, although the books that followed failed to achieve the same degree of success. Empire of the Sun was filmed by Steven Spielberg in 1987, starring a young Christian Bale as Jim (Ballard). Ballard himself appears briefly in the film, and he has described the experience of seeing his childhood memories reenacted and reinterpreted as bizarre.

Ballard continued to write until the end of his life, and also contributed occasional journalism and criticism to the British press. Of his later novels, Super-Cannes (2000) was well received,{{cite news |first=Stephen |last=Moss |title=Mad about Ballard |url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/critics/reviews/0,5917,368007,00.html |newspaper=The Guardian |date=13 September 2000 |access-date=25 April 2009 |location=London |archive-date=5 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091005171340/http://books.guardian.co.uk/critics/reviews/0,5917,368007,00.html |url-status=live }} winning the regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize.{{cite web |title=J. G. Ballard |url=https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/j-g-ballard |website=British Council Literature |publisher=British Council |access-date=17 January 2016 |archive-date=5 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205150941/https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/j-g-ballard |url-status=live }} These later novels often marked a move away from science fiction, instead engaging with elements of a traditional crime novel.{{cite news|last=Noys|first=Benjamin|title=La libido réactionnaire?: the recent fiction of J.G. Ballard|url=http://www.jgballard.ca/criticism/jgb_noys_libido_reactionnaire.html|access-date=7 March 2016|publisher=Sage Publishers|year=2007|archive-date=29 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429123105/http://www.jgballard.ca/criticism/jgb_noys_libido_reactionnaire.html|url-status=live}} Ballard was offered a CBE in 2003, but refused, calling it "a Ruritanian charade that helps to prop up our top-heavy monarchy".{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/dec/22/uk.books|title='It's a pantomime where tinsel takes the place of substance'|last=Branigan|first=Tania|date=22 December 2003|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=25 February 2017|issn=0261-3077}}{{cite news |last=Lea |first=Richard |last2=Adetunji |first2=Jo |name-list-style=and |date=19 April 2009 |title=Crash author JG Ballard, 'a giant on the world literary scene', dies aged 78 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/19/jg-ballard-author-dies-aged-78 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225213855/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/19/jg-ballard-author-dies-aged-78 |archive-date=25 February 2017 |access-date=25 April 2009 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London}} In June 2006, he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, which metastasised to his spine and ribs. The last of his books published in his lifetime was the autobiography Miracles of Life, written after his diagnosis.{{cite news |first=Stuart |last=Wavell |title=Dissecting bodies from the twilight zone: Stuart Wavell meets JG Ballard |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3215274.ece |newspaper=The Sunday Times |date=20 January 2008 |access-date=21 January 2008 |location=London |archive-date=17 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517020132/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3215274.ece |url-status=dead }} His final published short story, "The Dying Fall", appeared in the 1996 issue 106 of Interzone, a British sci-fi magazine. It was later reproduced in The Guardian on 25 April 2009.{{Cite news |last=Ballard |first=JG |date=2009-04-24 |title=The Dying Fall by JG Ballard |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/25/dying-fall-jg-ballard |access-date=2024-07-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

File:Grave of J. G. Ballard in Kensal Green Cemetery.jpg]]

In October 2008, before his death, Ballard's literary agent, Margaret Hanbury, brought an outline for a book by Ballard with the working title Conversations with My Physician: The Meaning, if Any, of Life to the Frankfurt Book Fair. The physician in question is oncologist Professor Jonathan Waxman of Imperial College London, who was treating Ballard for prostate cancer. While it was to be in part a book about cancer, and Ballard's struggle with it, it reportedly was to move on to broader themes. In April 2009 The Guardian reported that HarperCollins announced that Ballard's Conversations with My Physician could not be finished and plans to publish it were abandoned.{{cite news|first=Liz |last=Thompson |title=Ballard and the meaning of life |url=http://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=215:ballard-and-the-meaning-of-life&catid=903:publishing&Itemid=79 |work=BookBrunch |date=16 October 2008 |access-date=20 April 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425162341/http://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=215%3Aballard-and-the-meaning-of-life&catid=903%3Apublishing&Itemid=79 |archive-date=25 April 2009 }}

In 2013, a 17-page untitled typescript listed as "Vermilion Sands short story in draft" in the British Library catalogue and edited into an 8,000-word text by Bernard Sigaud appeared in a short-lived French reissue of the collection by Éditions Tristram ({{ISBN|978-2367190068}}) under the title "Le labyrinthe Hardoon" as the first story of the cycle, tentatively dated "late 1955/early 1956" by B. Sigaud, David Pringle and Christopher J. Beckett. Reports From the Deep End, an anthology of short stories inspired by J. G. Ballard (London: Titan Books, 2023, edited by Maxim Jakubowski and Rick McGrath), could have included "The Hardoon Labyrinth"—the original edition by B. Sigaud enriched to about 9,400 words by D. Pringle—but opposition from the J. G. Ballard Estate terminated the project.{{cite web|author=Beckett, Chris|title=The Progress of the Text: The Papers of J. G. Ballard at the British Library|work=Electronic British Library Journal|year=2011|url=http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2011articles/article12.html|access-date=3 July 2014|archive-date=14 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914105826/http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2011articles/article12.html|url-status=dead}}Horrocks, Chris, "Disinterring the Present: Science Fiction, Media Technology and the Ends of the Archive", Journal of Visual Culture, 2013 Vol 12(3): 414–430{{cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2014articles/article1.html |title=Near Vermilion Sands: The Context and Date of Composition of an Abandoned Literary Draft by J. G. Ballard |website=Bl.uk |date=2014 |access-date=3 July 2014 |archive-date=7 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407090012/http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2014articles/article1.html |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|author=King, Daniel|title="'Again Last Night': A previously unpublished Vermilion Sands story", SF Commentary 86|date=February 2014|pages=18–20|url=http://efanzines.com/SFC/SFC86L.pdf|access-date=5 April 2014|archive-date=7 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407065419/http://efanzines.com/SFC/SFC86L.pdf|url-status=live}}

In June 2010 the British Library acquired Ballard's personal archives under the British government's acceptance in lieu scheme for death duties. The archive contains eighteen holograph manuscripts for Ballard's novels, including the 840-page manuscript for Empire of the Sun, plus correspondence, notebooks, and photographs from throughout his life.{{cite web|url=http://blogit.realwire.com/archive-of-j-g-ballard-saved-for-the-nation|title=Archive of JG Ballard saved for the nation.|publisher=The British Library|date=10 June 2010|access-date=14 January 2013|archive-date=5 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105225409/http://blogit.realwire.com/archive-of-j-g-ballard-saved-for-the-nation|url-status=live}} In addition, two typewritten manuscripts for The Unlimited Dream Company are held at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.{{cite web |url=http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead%2F00305.xml&query=ballard&query-join=and |title=Manuscripts for The Unlimited Dream Company |publisher=Harry Ransom Center |access-date=14 July 2014 |archive-date=18 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218061846/http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead%2F00305.xml&query=ballard&query-join=and |url-status=dead }}

{{More citations needed section|date=August 2016}}

With the exception of his autobiographical novels, Ballard most commonly wrote in the post-apocalyptic dystopia genre.

His most celebrated novel in this regard is Crash, in which the characters (the protagonist, called Ballard, included) become increasingly obsessed with the violent psychosexuality of car crashes in general, and celebrity car crashes in particular. Ballard's novel was turned into a controversial film by David Cronenberg.{{cite web| url = https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/jgballard| title = JG Ballard – Prospect Magazine| access-date = 1 October 2021| archive-date = 13 June 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210613214928/https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/jgballard| url-status = live}}

Particularly revered among Ballard's admirers is his short story collection Vermilion Sands (1971), set in an eponymous desert resort town inhabited by forgotten starlets, insane heirs, very eccentric artists, and the merchants and bizarre servants who provide for them. Each story features peculiarly exotic technology such as cloud-carving sculptors performing for a party of eccentric onlookers, poetry-composing computers, orchids with operatic voices and egos to match, phototropic self-painting canvases, etc. In keeping with Ballard's central themes, most notably technologically mediated masochism, these tawdry and weird technologies service the dark and hidden desires and schemes of the human castaways who occupy Vermilion Sands, typically with psychologically grotesque and physically fatal results. In his introduction to Vermilion Sands, Ballard cites this as his favourite collection.

In a similar vein, his collection Memories of the Space Age explores many varieties of individual and collective psychological fallout from—and initial deep archetypal motivations for—the American space exploration boom of the 1960s and 1970s.

Will Self has described much of his fiction as being concerned with "idealised gated communities; the affluent, and the ennui of affluence [where] the virtualised world is concretised in the shape of these gated developments." He added in these fictional settings "there is no real pleasure to be gained; sex is commodified and devoid of feeling and there is no relationship with the natural world. These communities then implode into some form of violence."{{cite web|url=http://www.watershed.co.uk/audio-video/john-gray-and-will-self-jg-ballard|title=John Gray and Will Self – JG Ballard|website=Watershed|access-date=21 May 2018|archive-date=14 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814020656/http://www.watershed.co.uk/audio-video/john-gray-and-will-self-jg-ballard|url-status=live}} Budrys, however, mocked his fiction as "call[ing] for people who don't think ... to be the protagonist of a J. G. Ballard novel, or anything more than a very minor character therein, you must have cut yourself off from the entire body of scientific education".{{Cite magazine

|last=Budrys

|first=Algis

|date=December 1966

|title=Galaxy Bookshelf

|url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v25n02_1966-12_modified#page/n91/mode/2up

|magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction

|pages=125–133

}}

In addition to his novels, Ballard made extensive use of the short story form. Many of his earliest published works in the 1950s and 1960s were short stories, including influential works like Chronopolis.{{cite web|url=https://fictionphile.com/20-most-influential-science-fiction-short-stories-of-the-20th-century/|title=20 Most Influential Science Fiction Short Stories of the 20th Century|website=FictionPhile.com|author=Boyd, Jason|access-date=9 February 2019|date=7 February 2019|archive-date=14 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614122032/https://fictionphile.com/20-most-influential-science-fiction-short-stories-of-the-20th-century/|url-status=live}} In an essay on Ballard, Will Wiles notes how his short stories "have a lingering fascination with the domestic interior, with furnishing and appliances", adding, "it's a landscape that he distorts until it shrieks with anxiety". He concludes that "what Ballard saw, and what he expressed in his novels, was nothing less than the effect that the technological world, including our built environment, was having upon our minds and bodies."{{cite journal|url=https://placesjournal.org/article/the-corner-of-lovecraft-and-ballard/|title=The Corner of Lovecraft and Ballard|first=Will|last=Wiles|date=20 June 2017|journal=Places Journal|issue=2017|access-date=21 May 2018|doi=10.22269/170620|doi-access=free|archive-date=2 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602153227/https://placesjournal.org/article/the-corner-of-lovecraft-and-ballard/|url-status=live}}

Ballard coined the term inverted Crusoeism. Whereas the original Robinson Crusoe became a castaway against his own will, Ballard's protagonists often choose to maroon themselves; hence inverted Crusoeism (e.g., Concrete Island). The concept provides a reason as to why people would deliberately maroon themselves on a remote island; in Ballard's work, becoming a castaway is as much a healing and empowering process as an entrapping one, enabling people to discover a more meaningful and vital existence.

On 13 December 1965, BBC Two screened an adaptation of the short story "Thirteen to Centaurus" directed by Peter Potter. The one-hour drama formed part of the first season of Out of the Unknown and starred Donald Houston as Dr. Francis and James Hunter as Abel Granger.{{Cite web|url = https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0279463/|title = "Out of the Unknown" Thirteen to Centaurus (TV Episode 1965)|website = IMDb|access-date = 28 March 2020|archive-date = 28 March 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200328105620/https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0279463/|url-status = live}} In 2003, Ballard's short story "The Enormous Space" (first published in the science fiction magazine Interzone in 1989, subsequently printed in the collection of Ballard's short stories War Fever) was adapted into an hour-long television film for the BBC entitled Home by Richard Curson Smith, who also directed it. The plot follows a middle-class man who chooses to abandon the outside world and restrict himself to his house, becoming a hermit.

Ballard is cited as an important forebear of the cyberpunk movement by Bruce Sterling in his introduction to the Mirrorshades anthology, and by author William Gibson.{{Cite news|date=9 January 2020|title=For William Gibson, Seeing the Future Is Easy. But the Past?|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/books/review/william-gibson-by-the-book-interview.html|access-date=6 June 2021|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=16 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816130950/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/books/review/william-gibson-by-the-book-interview.html|url-status=live}} Ballard's parody of American politics, the pamphlet "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan", which was subsequently included as a chapter in his experimental novel The Atrocity Exhibition, was photocopied and distributed by pranksters at the 1980 Republican National Convention. In the early 1970s, Bill Butler, a bookseller in Brighton, was prosecuted under UK obscenity laws for selling the pamphlet.{{cite web |last=Holliday |first=Mike |title="A DIRTY AND DISEASED MIND": THE UNICORN BOOKSHOP OBSCENITY TRIAL |url=http://www.holli.co.uk/unicorn/text.htm |website=holli.co.uk |publisher=Mike Holliday |access-date=9 June 2022 |archive-date=25 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925162259/http://holli.co.uk/unicorn/text.htm |url-status=live }}

In his 2002 book Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals, the philosopher John Gray acknowledges Ballard as a major influence on his ideas. The book's publisher quotes Ballard as saying, "Straw Dogs challenges all our assumptions about what it is to be human, and convincingly shows that most of them are delusions."{{Cite web |title=Straw Dogs |url=https://granta.com/products/straw-dogs/ |access-date=15 March 2023 |website=Granta |language=en |archive-date=26 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326020227/https://granta.com/products/straw-dogs/ |url-status=live }} Gray wrote a short essay, in the New Statesman, about a dinner he had with Ballard in which he stated, "Unlike many others, it wasn't his dystopian vision that gripped my imagination. For me his work was lyrical—an evocation of the beauty that can be gleaned from landscapes of desolation."{{Cite web |last=Gray |first=John |date=6 December 2018 |title=The night that changed my life: John Gray on having dinner with JG Ballard |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2018/12/john-gray-on-jg-ballard-conversation |access-date=2023-03-15 |website=New Statesman |language=en |archive-date=15 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315184940/https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2018/12/john-gray-on-jg-ballard-conversation |url-status=live }}

According to literary theorist Brian McHale, The Atrocity Exhibition is a "postmodernist text based on science fiction topoi".Brian McHale, Postmodernist Fiction {{ISBN|978-0-415-04513-1}}Luckhurst, Roger. [https://web.archive.org/web/20020602193625/http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/55/luckhurst55art.htm "Border Policing: Postmodernism and Science Fiction"] Science Fiction Studies (November 1991)

Lee Killough directly cites Ballard's seminal Vermilion Sands short stories as the inspiration for her collection Aventine, also a backwater resort for celebrities and eccentrics where bizarre or frivolous novelty technology facilitates the expression of dark intents and drives. Terry Dowling's milieu of Twilight Beach is also influenced by the stories of Vermilion Sands and other Ballard works.{{Cite web |title=Terry Dowling |url=http://www.terrydowling.com/default.asp?id=biography |access-date=2022-04-13 |website=terrydowling.com |archive-date=29 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220629060417/http://terrydowling.com/default.asp?id=biography |url-status=live }}

In Simulacra and Simulation, Jean Baudrillard hailed Crash as the "first great novel of the universe of simulation".{{cite book | title=Simulacra and Simulation | author=Baudrillard, Jean | year=1981 | page=[https://archive.org/details/simulacrasimula000baud/page/119 119] | isbn=978-0-472-06521-9 | url=https://archive.org/details/simulacrasimula000baud | url-access=registration | publisher=Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press }}

Ballard also had an interest in the relationship between various media. In the early 1970s, he was one of the trustees of the Institute for Research in Art and Technology.{{cite web|url=http://www.jgballard.ca/media/1971_april_books_and_bookmen_magazine.html|title=JG Ballard Interviewed by Douglas Reed|website=Jgballard.ca|access-date=21 May 2018|archive-date=17 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180617120918/http://www.jgballard.ca/media/1971_april_books_and_bookmen_magazine.html|url-status=live}}

Ballard has had a notable{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8008277.stm|title=What Pop Music Tells Us About J G Ballard|date=20 April 2009|publisher=BBC News|access-date=3 October 2009|archive-date=23 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090423052125/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8008277.stm|url-status=live}} influence on popular music, where his work has been used as a basis for lyrical imagery, particularly amongst British post-punk and industrial groups. Examples include albums such as Metamatic by John Foxx and The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A by Exodus, various songs by Joy Division (most famously "Atrocity Exhibition" from Closer and "Disorder" from Unknown Pleasures),{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8008277.stm|title=What pop music tells us about JG Ballard|publisher=BBC|access-date=3 October 2009|archive-date=23 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090423052125/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8008277.stm|url-status=live}} "High Rise" by Hawkwind, "Miss the Girl" by Siouxsie Sioux's second band The Creatures (based on Crash), "Down in the Park" by Gary Numan, "Chrome Injury" by The Church, "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" by Madonna,{{cite web|url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/features/article/madonna-new-york-ny-july-25-2001|title=Madonna (New York, NY – July 25, 2001) – Feature|website=Slantmagazine.com|date=26 July 2001|access-date=21 May 2018|archive-date=4 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171004183503/https://www.slantmagazine.com/features/article/madonna-new-york-ny-july-25-2001|url-status=live}} "Warm Leatherette" by The Normal{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2009/apr/20/jg-ballard-music-inspired|title=JG Ballard: The music he inspired|last=Myers|first=Ben|newspaper=The Guardian}} and Atrocity Exhibition by Danny Brown.{{cite web |last=Young |first=Alex |url=http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/07/danny-brown-has-named-his-new-album-atrocity-exhibition-after-the-joy-division-song/ |title=Danny Brown has named his new album Atrocity Exhibition after the Joy Division song |work=Consequence of Sound |date=18 July 2016 |access-date=30 September 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160925193537/http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/07/danny-brown-has-named-his-new-album-atrocity-exhibition-after-the-joy-division-song/ |archive-date=25 September 2016 }}{{cite web |url=http://pitchfork.com/news/66881-danny-brown-announces-new-album-title-atrocity-exhibition/ |title=Danny Brown Announces New Album Title Atrocity Exhibition |work=Pitchfork |date=18 July 2016 |access-date=30 September 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160926195553/http://pitchfork.com/news/66881-danny-brown-announces-new-album-title-atrocity-exhibition/ |archive-date=26 September 2016 }}{{cite web |last=Renshaw |first=David |url=http://www.thefader.com/2016/07/18/danny-brown-new-album-atrocity-exhibition |title=Danny Brown Names New Album Atrocity Exhibition |work=The Fader |date=18 July 2016 |access-date=30 September 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921162416/http://www.thefader.com/2016/07/18/danny-brown-new-album-atrocity-exhibition |archive-date=21 September 2016 }}

Songwriters Trevor Horn and Bruce Woolley credit Ballard's story "The Sound-Sweep" with inspiring The Buggles' hit "Video Killed the Radio Star",{{cite web |url=http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec11/articles/classic-tracks-1211.htm |title=The Buggles 'Video Killed The Radio Star' |website=Sound on Sound |access-date=3 July 2014 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303180624/http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec11/articles/classic-tracks-1211.htm |url-status=live }} and the Buggles' second album included a song entitled "Vermillion Sands".{{cite web|url=http://www.trevorhorn.com/horniculture/from_the_art_of_plastic_to_the.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613154405/http://www.trevorhorn.com/horniculture/from_the_art_of_plastic_to_the.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 June 2010 |title=Horniculture! • From the Art of Plastic to the Age of Noise |website=Trevorhorn.com }}

The 1978 post-punk band Comsat Angels took their name from one of Ballard's short stories.{{cite web |url=http://www.gothtronic.com/?page=23&interviews=919 |title=Путеводитель по миру шоппинга – скидки, распродажи, акции – В мире модных брендов 23 |website=Gothtronic.com |date=21 November 2013 |access-date=3 July 2014 |archive-date=19 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091019121109/http://www.gothtronic.com/?page=23&interviews=919 |url-status=dead }} An early instrumental track by British electronic music group The Human League "4JG" bears Ballard's initials as a homage to the author (intended as a response to "2HB" by Roxy Music).{{cite web|title=The Human League's Phil Oakey is a man of letters – B is for Ballard|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/13082121.The_Human_League_s_Phil_Oakey_is_a_man_of_letters/|website=The Herald|location=Glasgow|date=24 November 2011|access-date=19 April 2018|archive-date=20 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180420010648/http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/13082121.The_Human_League_s_Phil_Oakey_is_a_man_of_letters/|url-status=live}}

The Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers include a sample from an interview with Ballard in their song "Mausoleum".{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8008277.stm | publisher=BBC News | title=What pop music tells us about JG Ballard | date=20 April 2009 | access-date=5 May 2010 | archive-date=23 April 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090423052125/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8008277.stm | url-status=live }} Additionally, the Manic Street Preachers song, "A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun", is taken from a line in the J. G. Ballard novel Cocaine Nights. The English band Klaxons named their debut album Myths of the Near Future after one of Ballard's short story collections.{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8008277.stm|title=What pop music tells us about JG Ballard|date=20 April 2009|via=news.bbc.co.uk|access-date=12 October 2021|archive-date=20 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230620172404/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8008277.stm|url-status=live}} The band Empire of the Sun took their name from Ballard's novel. The American rock band The Sound of Animals Fighting took the name of the song "The Heraldic Beak of the Manufacturer's Medallion" from Crash. UK-based drum and bass producer Fortitude released an EP in 2016 called "Kline Coma Xero" named after characters in The Atrocity Exhibition. The song "Terminal Beach" by the American band Yacht is a tribute to his short story collection that goes by the same name.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}} American indie musician and comic book artist Jeffrey Lewis mentions Ballard by name in his song "Cult Boyfriend", on the record A Turn in The Dream-Songs (2011), in reference to Ballard's cult following as an author.{{Cite web|url=https://jeffreylewis.bandcamp.com/album/a-turn-in-the-dream-songs-2011|title=A Turn in the Dream-Songs (2011), by Jeffrey Lewis|website=Jeffrey Lewis|access-date=4 November 2021|archive-date=4 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104190648/https://jeffreylewis.bandcamp.com/album/a-turn-in-the-dream-songs-2011|url-status=live}}

The 2024 Met Gala dress code was "The Garden of Time", inspired by Ballard's 1962 short story "The Garden of Time".{{Cite web|url=https://www.vogue.com/article/met-gala-dress-code-2024|title=And the 2024 Met Gala Dress Code Is…|date=15 February 2024|website=Vogue|access-date=15 February 2024|archive-date=15 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240215225811/https://www.vogue.com/article/met-gala-dress-code-2024|url-status=live}}

{{Incomplete list|date=December 2012}}

• 1979 BSFA Award for Best Novel for The Unlimited Dream Company{{cite web |url=http://www.sfadb.com/British_SF_Association_Awards_1980 |title=1979 BSFA Awards |publisher=sfadb.com |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-date=27 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127075004/http://www.sfadb.com/British_SF_Association_Awards_1980 |url-status=live }}
• 1984 Guardian Fiction Prize for Empire of the Sun{{cite web|url=http://www.jgballard.ca/media/1984_nov29_guardian.html|title=1984 Guardian JG Ballard interview by W.L. Webb|website=Jgballard.ca|access-date=21 May 2018|archive-date=9 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190409203812/http://www.jgballard.ca/media/1984_nov29_guardian.html|url-status=live}}
• 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction for Empire of the Sun{{cite news|url=http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/events/tait-black/winners/fiction|title=James Tait Black Prizes Fiction Winners|newspaper=University of Edinburgh|access-date=13 January 2013|archive-date=26 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160326150532/http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/events/tait-black/winners/fiction|url-status=live}}
• 1984 Empire of the Sun shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction{{cite web|url=http://www.themanbookerprize.com/_downloads/The_Man_Booker_Prize_Archive.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130915101208/http://www.themanbookerprize.com/_downloads/The_Man_Booker_Prize_Archive.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 September 2013|title=The Man Booker Prize Archive 1969–2012|access-date=21 October 2013}}
• 1997 De Montfort University Honorary doctorate.{{cite web |url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=102839§ioncode=26|title=Honorary Degrees |work=Times Higher Education |last=Williams |first=Lynne |date=12 September 1997 |access-date=12 January 2013}}
• 2001 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Europe & South Asia region) for Super-Cannes{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/jg-ballard-cops-commonwealth-prize/article25438402/|title=J.G. Ballard cops Commonwealth prize|access-date=21 May 2018|newspaper=The Globe and Mail|archive-date=5 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305002712/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/jg-ballard-cops-commonwealth-prize/article25438402/|url-status=live}}
• 2008 Golden PEN Award{{cite web |url=http://www.englishpen.org/prizes/golden-pen-award-for-a-lifetimes-distinguished-service-to-literature |title=Golden Pen Award, official website |publisher=English PEN |access-date=3 December 2012 |archive-date=21 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121121020544/http://www.englishpen.org/prizes/golden-pen-award-for-a-lifetimes-distinguished-service-to-literature/ |url-status=dead }}
• 2009 Royal Holloway University of London Posthumous honorary doctorate{{cite web|url=http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Resources/Helper_apps/Message.asp?ref_no=1989|title=2009 Honorary Graduates|publisher=Royal Holloway University of London|date=7 July 2009|access-date=12 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105222116/http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Resources/Helper_apps/Message.asp?ref_no=1989|archive-date=5 November 2013|url-status=dead}}

{{Div col}}

• The Wind from Nowhere (1961)
• The Drowned World (1962)
• The Burning World (1964; also The Drought, 1965)
• The Crystal World (1966)
• The Atrocity Exhibition (1970, first published as Love and Napalm: Export USA, 1972)
• Crash (1973)
• Concrete Island (1974)
• High-Rise (1975)
• The Unlimited Dream Company (1979)
• Hello America (1981)
• Empire of the Sun (1984)
• The Day of Creation (1987)
• Running Wild (1988)
• The Kindness of Women (1991)
• Rushing to Paradise (1994)
• Cocaine Nights (1996)
• Super-Cannes (2000)
• Millennium People (2003)
• Kingdom Come (2006)

{{Div col end}}

{{Div col}}

• The Voices of Time and Other Stories (1962)
• Billennium (1962)
• Passport to Eternity (1963)
• The 4-Dimensional Nightmare (1963)
• The Terminal Beach (1964)
• The Impossible Man (1966)
• The Overloaded Man (1967)
• The Disaster Area (1967)
• The Day of Forever (1967)
• Vermilion Sands (1971)
• Chronopolis and Other Stories (1971)
• Low-Flying Aircraft and Other Stories (1976)
• The Best of J. G. Ballard (1977)
• The Best Short Stories of J. G. Ballard (1978)
• The Venus Hunters (1980)
• Myths of the Near Future (1982)
• The Voices of Time (1985)
• Memories of the Space Age (1988)
• War Fever (1990)
• The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard (2001)None of the "complete" collections are in fact fully exhaustive, since they contain only some of the Atrocity Exhibition stories.
• The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard: Volume 1 (2006)
• The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard: Volume 2 (2006)
• The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard (2009)

{{Div col end}}

• A User's Guide to the Millennium: Essays and Reviews (1996)
• Miracles of Life (autobiography; 2008)

• Paris Review – J.G. Ballard (1984)
• Re/Search No. 8/9: J.G. Ballard (1985)
• J.G. Ballard: Quotes (2004)
• J.G. Ballard: Conversations (2005){{cite web|url=https://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/2009/12/we-wont-give-pause-until-blood-is.html|title=We won't give pause until the blood is flowing|author=Deadhead, Daisy|access-date=8 December 2009|website=DeadAir|date=8 December 2009|archive-date=17 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230317181626/https://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/2009/12/we-wont-give-pause-until-blood-is.html|url-status=live}}
• Extreme Metaphors (interviews; 2012)

• When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970, Val Guest)
• Empire of the Sun (1987, Steven Spielberg)
• Crash (1996, David Cronenberg)
• The Atrocity Exhibition (1998, Jonathan Weiss){{cite web|url=http://www.reel23.com/ |access-date=3 January 2013 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130215052030/http://www.reel23.com/ |archive-date=15 February 2013|title=reel 23}}
• Low-Flying Aircraft (2002, Solveig Nordlund)
• High-Rise (2015, Ben Wheatley)

• "Thirteen to Centaurus" (1965) from the short story of the same name – dir. Peter Potter (BBC Two)
• Crash! (1971) dir. Harley CoklissSellars, S. (10 August 2007). "[http://www.ballardian.com/crash-full-tilt-autogeddon Crash! Full-Tilt Autogeddon] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090204192844/http://www.ballardian.com/crash-full-tilt-autogeddon |date=4 February 2009 }}". Ballardian.com. Retrieved 25 April 2009.
• "Minus One" (1991) from the story of the same name – short film dir. by Simon Brooks.
• "Home" (2003) primarily based on "The Enormous Space" – dir. Richard Curson Smith (BBC Four)
• "The Drowned Giant" (2021) from the short story of the same name, is the eighth episode of the second season of the Netflix anthology series Love, Death & Robots

• In Nov/Dec 1988, CBC Radio's sci-fi series Vanishing Point ran a seven-episode miniseries of The Stories of J. G. Ballard, which included audio adaptations of "Escapement," "Dead Astronaut," "The Cloud Sculptors of Coral D," "Low Flying Aircraft," "A Question of Re-entry," "News from the Sun" and "Having a Wonderful Time".
• In June 2013, BBC Radio 4 broadcast adaptions of The Drowned World and Concrete Island as part of a season of dystopian fiction entitled Dangerous Visions.{{cite news|last=Martin|first=Tim|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=14 June 2013|title=Do have nightmares|access-date=19 June 2013|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10105813/Do-have-nightmares.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10105813/Do-have-nightmares.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• Ballard, J.G. (1984). Empire of the Sun. {{ISBN|0-00-654700-1}}.
• Ballard, J.G. (1991). The Kindness of Women. {{ISBN|0-00-654701-X}}.
• Ballard, J.G. (1993). The Atrocity Exhibition (expanded and annotated edition). {{ISBN|0-00-711686-1}}.
• Ballard, J.G. (2006). "[http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,1722984,00.html Look back at Empire] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111044214/http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,1722984,00.html |date=11 January 2008 }}". The Guardian, 4 March 2006.
• Baxter, J. (2001). "[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=235 J.G. Ballard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221211124523/https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=235 |date=11 December 2022 }}". The Literary Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11 March 2006.
• Baxter, J. (ed.) (2008). J.G. Ballard, London: Continuum. {{ISBN|978-0-8264-9726-0}}.
• Baxter, John (2011). The Inner Man: The Life of J. G. Ballard. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. {{ISBN|978-0-297-86352-6}}.
• Brigg, Peter (1985). J.G. Ballard. Rpt. Borgo Press/Wildside Press. {{ISBN|0-89370-953-0}}.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20051225121457/http://www.collins.co.uk/books.aspx?book=30590 Collins English Dictionary]. {{ISBN|0-00-719153-7}}. Quoted in [http://www.ballardian.com/ Ballardian: The World of JG Ballard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119125417/http://www.ballardian.com/ |date=19 January 2021 }}. Retrieved 11 March 2006.
• Cowley, J. (2001). "[http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,6121,587000,00.html The Ballard of Shanghai jail] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724145628/http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,6121,587000,00.html |date=24 July 2008 }}". Review of The Complete Stories by J.G. Ballard. The Observer, 4 November 2001. Retrieved 11 March 2006.
• Delville, Michel. J.G. Ballard. Plymouth: Northcote House, 1998.
• Gasiorek, A. (2005). J. G. Ballard. Manchester University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-7190-7053-2}}
• Hall, C. "[http://www.spikemagazine.com/0697lard.php Extreme Metaphor: A Crash Course in the Fiction of JG Ballard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170125020730/http://www.spikemagazine.com/0697lard.php |date=25 January 2017 }}". Retrieved 11 March 2006.
• Livingstone, D. B. (1996?). "[http://www.spikemagazine.com/0899ballard.php Prophet with Honour] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821142454/http://www.spikemagazine.com/0899ballard.php |date=21 August 2016 }}". Retrieved 12 March 2006.
• Luckhurst, R. (1998). The Angle Between Two Walls: The Fiction of J. G. Ballard. Liverpool University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-85323-831-7}}.
• McGrath, Rick (ed.). Deep Ends: The JG Ballard Anthology 2015. The Terminal Press. 2015. {{ISBN|978-0-9940982-0-7}}.
• McGrath, Rick (ed.). Deep Ends: The JG Ballard Anthology 2016. The Terminal Press. 2016. {{ISBN|978-0-9940982-5-2}}.
• McGrath, Rick (ed.). Deep Ends: A Ballardian Anthology 2018. The Terminal Press. 2018. {{ISBN|978-0-9940982-7-6}}.
• McGrath, Rick (ed.). Deep Ends: A Ballardian Anthology 2019. The Terminal Press. 2019. {{ISBN|978-1-7753679-0-1}}.
• McGrath, Rick (ed.). Deep Ends: A Ballardian Anthology 2020. The Terminal Press. 2020. {{ISBN|978-1-7753679-5-6}}.
• McGrath, R. [http://www.jgballard.ca/ JG Ballard Book Collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130104163735/http://www.jgballard.ca/ |date=4 January 2013 }}. Retrieved 11 March 2006.
• McGrath, Rick (ed.). The JG Ballard Book. The Terminal Press. 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-9918665-1-9}}
• {{Cite journal |author=O'Connell, Mark |date=23 April 2020 |title=Why We Are Living in Ballard's World |department=Critic at Large |journal=New Statesman |volume=149 |issue=5514 |pages=54–57}}
• Oramus, Dominika. Grave New World. Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2007.
• Pringle, David, Earth is the Alien Planet: J.G. Ballard's Four-Dimensional Nightmare, San Bernardino, CA: The Borgo Press, 1979.
• Pringle, David (ed.) and Ballard, J.G. (1982). "From Shanghai to Shepperton". Re/Search 8/9: J.G. Ballard: 112–124. {{ISBN|0-940642-08-5}}.
• Rossi, Umberto (2009). "[http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/107/rossi107.htm A Little Something about Dead Astronauts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727151246/https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/107/rossi107.htm |date=27 July 2023 }}", Science-Fiction Studies, No. 107, 36:1 (March), 101–120.
• Stephenson, Gregory, Out of the Night and into the Dream: A Thematic Study of the Fiction of J.G. Ballard, New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.
• McGrath, Rick (ed.). Deep Ends: The JG Ballard Anthology 2014. The Terminal Press. 2014. {{ISBN|978-0-9918665-4-0}}.
• V. Vale (ed.) (2005). J.G. Ballard: Conversations ([https://web.archive.org/web/20060508084255/http://www.researchpubs.com/books/jgbctoc.php excerpts]). RE/Search Publications. {{ISBN|1-889307-13-0}}.
• V. Vale and Ryan, Mike (eds.) (2005). J.G. Ballard: Quotes ([https://web.archive.org/web/20051219045124/http://www.researchpubs.com/features/jgbqu.php excerpts]). RE/Search Publications. {{ISBN|1-889307-12-2}}.
• Wilson, D. Harlan. Modern Masters of Science Fiction: J.G. Ballard. University of Illinois Press. 2017. {{ISBN|978-0-25-208295-5}}.

{{Refend}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• {{Internet Archive author |sname=James Graham Ballard}}
• {{British council|id=j-g-ballard|name= J. G. Ballard}}
• {{ISFDB name|name=J. G. Ballard}}
• {{IMDb name|50618}}
• [http://www.ballardian.com/ Ballardian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119125417/http://www.ballardian.com/ |date=19 January 2021 }} (Simon Sellars)
• [http://www.jgballard.ca/ J.G. Ballard Literary Archive & Bibliographies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130104163735/http://www.jgballard.ca/ |date=4 January 2013 }} (Rick McGrath)
• [http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_otbie-ballard.html 2008 profile of J. G. Ballard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202243/http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_otbie-ballard.html |date=3 March 2016 }} by Theodore Dalrymple in City Journal magazine
• [http://www.sfwa.org/hidden-pages/estates-contact-information/ J. G. Ballard Literary Estate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131119035133/http://www.sfwa.org/hidden-pages/estates-contact-information/ |date=19 November 2013 }}
• [https://www.bl.uk/people/j-g-ballard J G Ballard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221211124519/https://www.bl.uk/people/j-g-ballard |date=11 December 2022 }} at the British Library
• [http://searcharchives.bl.uk/IAMS_VU2:IAMS032-000673106 J G Ballard]{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} archives and manuscripts catalogue at the British Library

Articles, reviews and essays

• {{cite journal| url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2929/the-art-of-fiction-no-85-j-g-ballard| title=J. G. Ballard, The Art of Fiction No. 85| journal=The Paris Review| date=Winter 1984| last=Frick| first=Thomas| volume=Winter 1984| issue=94| access-date=27 October 2010| archive-date=29 January 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129052908/https://theparisreview.org/interviews/2929/the-art-of-fiction-no-85-j-g-ballard| url-status=live}}
• [http://www.ballardian.com/landscapes-from-a-dream Landscapes From a Dream] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201229210119/http://www.ballardian.com/landscapes-from-a-dream |date=29 December 2020 }}, J G Ballard and modern art
• [http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_otbie-ballard.html The Marriage of Reason and Nightmare, City Journal, Winter 2008] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202243/http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_otbie-ballard.html |date=3 March 2016 }}
• [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article3537987.ece Miracles of Life reviewed by Karl Miller] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517084626/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article3537987.ece |date=17 May 2011 }} in the Times Literary Supplement, 12 March 2008
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090107173635/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21852 J.G. Ballard: The Glow of the Prophet] Diane Johnson article on Ballard from The New York Review of Books
• Reviews of Ballard's work and John Foyster's criticism of Ballard's work featured in [http://www.sciencefiction.net.au/home/index.php/sf-editions/41onwards/edition46 Edition 46 of Science Fiction magazine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200711033902/http://www.sciencefiction.net.au/home/index.php/sf-editions/41onwards/edition46 |date=11 July 2020 }} edited by Van Ikin.
• A review of Ballard's Running Wild [http://www.sobriquetmagazine.com/books/2010/06/j-g-ballards-running-wild.html J. G. Ballard's Running Wild – The Literary Life] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924103132/http://www.sobriquetmagazine.com/books/2010/06/j-g-ballards-running-wild.html |date=24 September 2015 }}

Source material

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070807222146/http://photoimg.enjoyjapan.naver.com/view/enjoybbs/viewphoto/phistory/48000/47854.gif J. G. Ballard and his family on the list of the internment camp] at [http://www.jacar.go.jp/english/index.html Japan Center for Asian Historical Records] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120102142103/http://www.jacar.go.jp/english/index.html |date=2 January 2012 }}
• [https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:214322 J.G. Ballard and Scottish artist Sir Eduardo Paolozzi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811093352/https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:214322 |date=11 August 2014 }}

Obituaries and remembrances

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20091014072055/http://www.legacy.com/timesonline-uk/Obituaries.asp?page=LifeStory&personId=126412054 Obituary] in the Times Online
• [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jg-ballard-writer-whose-dystopian-visions-helped-shape-our-view-of-the-modern-world-1671634.html Obituary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630101651/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jg-ballard-writer-whose-dystopian-visions-helped-shape-our-view-of-the-modern-world-1671634.html |date=30 June 2017 }} by John Clute in The Independent
• [http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-jg-ballard20,0,6281211.story Obituary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131205220652/http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-jg-ballard20,0,6281211.story |date=5 December 2013 }} in the Los Angeles Times
• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8008098.stm Quotes from other writers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101044522/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8008098.stm |date=1 January 2016 }} on BBC News
• [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/20/jg-ballard-tribute-writer More writers' reactions] in The Guardian
• A short [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2009/04/j-g-ballard.html appreciation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029053028/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2009/04/j-g-ballard.html |date=29 October 2013 }} in The New Yorker
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090426045436/http://www.researchpubs.com/Blog/?p=163 Tribute] by V. Vale from RE/Search
• [http://www.ballardian.com/rick-mcgraths-letter-from-london-jg-ballard-memorial Letter From London: The J.G. Ballard Memorial] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127002510/http://www.ballardian.com/rick-mcgraths-letter-from-london-jg-ballard-memorial |date=27 January 2021 }})
• Self on Ballard by Will Self on BBC Radio 4, 26 September 2009 ([http://www.jgballard.ca/deep_ends/self_on_ballard.html Transcript and Postscript] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814183426/http://www.jgballard.ca/deep_ends/self_on_ballard.html |date=14 August 2014 }}) at [http://www.jgballard.ca/index.html The Terminal Collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221211155/http://www.jgballard.ca/index.html |date=21 February 2015 }} by Rick McGrath)

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