J G Ballard, the award-winning writer best known for his autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun, has died at his home in Shepperton, aged 78, after a long illness. He had been unwell “for several years”, said his agent, Margaret Hanbury. He had prostate cancer.
“J G Ballard has been a giant on the world literary scene for more than 50 years,” said Ms Hanbury, who was his agent for 25 of them. “His acute and visionary observation of contemporary life was distilled into a number of brilliant, powerful novels which have been published all over the world and saw Ballard gain cult status.”
James Graham Ballard was regularly labelled a writer of science fiction, but maintained he was “picturing the psychology of the future”. He earned the rare distinction of appearing as an adjective – “Ballardian” – in the Collins English Dictionary, referring to “dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments”.