James Graham Ballard was born in Shanghai, China on 15 November 1930. His family was interned by the Japanese during the Second World War, returning to Britain in 1946. Ballard read Medicine at King's College, Cambridge, and later studied English at London University. He worked as a copywriter and was stationed in Canada with the Royal Air Force.

His first short story was published in 1956. This and many other short stories were published in science fiction magazines and were heavily influenced by the surrealist movement. The short story is seen by many critics as central to Ballard's work, originating and developing themes and obsessions that progress through into his novels. The dislocated sense of time and space in these stories is located in his childhood experience of war and provides many of the images that have become associated with Ballard's fiction: wrecked machinery, deserted beaches, crashed cars, abandoned buildings and empty, desolate landscapes.

His early novels include The Drowned World (1962), The Wind from Nowhere (1962), The Drought (1965) and The Crystal World (1966). These were followed by more experimental novels, such as The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), Concrete Island (1974) and High-Rise (1975), establishing Ballard's reputation with both readers and critics as a cult avant-garde writer.

Ballard's acclaimed and best-selling novel Empire of the Sun (1984) brought him to wider public attention. The novel drew directly on his childhood wartime experiences and won the Guardian Fiction Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction.

James Graham Ballard lives in Middlesex.

Awards Nebula Best Short story nominee (1965) : The Drowned Giant Nebula Best Novellette nominee (1982) : Myths of the Near Future British Fantasy Society Best Novel nominee (1996) : Cocaine Nights Collections Billenium (1962) The Voices of Time (1962) The Four-Dimensional Nightmare (1963) Passport to Eternity (1963) The Terminal Beach (1964) The Impossible Man: And Other Stories (1966) The Day of Forever (1967) The Disaster Area (1967) The Overloaded Man (1967) Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan (1968) The Atrocity Exhibition (1969) Chronopolis: And Other Stories (1971) Vermilion Sands (1971) The Best of J G Ballard (1977) The Best Short Stories of J G Ballard (1978) Low-Flying Aircraft: And Other Stories (1978) Earth Is the Alien Planet: J.G. Ballard's Four-dimensional Nightmare (1979) (with David Pringle) Myths of the Near Future (1982) News from the Sun (1982) Memories of the Space Age (1988) War Fever (1990) The Complete Short Stories (2001) Non Fiction A User's Guide to the Millennium: Essays and Reviews (1978) Tacita Dean (2001) Novels The Drowned World (1962) The Wind from Nowhere (1962) The Drought (1964) The Assassination Weapon (1966) The Crystal World (1966) Love and Napalm: Export U.S.A. (1968) 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) Short Stories Prima Belladonna (1956) Build-Up (1957) The Concentration City (1957) Manhole 69 (1957) Mobile (1957) Track 12 (1958) Now: Zero (1959) Chronopolis (1960) The Sound-Sweep (1960) The Voices of Time (1960) Zone of Terror (1960) Billenium (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) The Illuminated Man (1964) The Lost Leonardo (1964) The Terminal Beach (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 (1969) The Atrocity Exhibition (1969) Crash! (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 (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 (1982) Report on an Unidentified Space Station (1982) The Object of Attack (1984) A Guide to Virtual Death (1992) The Message from Mars (1992) 1969 The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill The Beach Murders The Comsat Angels Cry Hope, Cry Fury! 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 The Intensive Care Unit Low-Flying Aircraft Minus One Motel Architecture Mr F is Mr F My Dream of Flying to Wake Island News from the Sun 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