J G Ballard February 20, 2008

This event has now been cancelled, due to Ballard's ill health. The South Bank Centre are contacting people who'd bought tickets.

A true pioneer in the landscape of post-war fiction, JG Ballard's memoir Miracles of Life is sure to be one of the landmark books of 2008. Opening and closing in Shanghai, where he was interned in a Japanese concentration camp, Ballard charts the course of his remarkable life, from the vibrant surroundings of pre-war Shanghai to his arrival in post-war Britain: a country still physically and mentally scarred by World War Two. He explores the social upheaval of the 1960s and his adjustment to life following the premature death of his wife in 1964.

Ballard's fiction - from The Drowned World to Kingdom Come has cast an unerring, cinematic eye over British life and inspired a generation of writers. He discusses his life and writing.

Official Website: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/literature-spoken-word/productions/jg-ballard-19075