Miracles nominated for Samuel Johnson prize
By Simon Sellars • Apr 22nd, 2008 •
Category: Ballardosphere, autobiography, non-fiction
Miracles of Life is in the running for the £30,000 Samuel Johnson non-fiction prize.
By Simon Sellars • Apr 22nd, 2008 •
Category: Ballardosphere, autobiography, non-fiction
Miracles of Life is in the running for the £30,000 Samuel Johnson non-fiction prize.
By Simon Sellars • Apr 9th, 2008 •
Category: Australia, Ballardosphere, Shanghai, Shepperton, autobiography
Reviewing Miracles, the Age newspaper drops a clanger. Still, I wouldn’t mind visiting ‘Shaghai’ one day…
By Simon Sellars • Feb 26th, 2008 •
Category: Shepperton, alternate worlds, autobiography, dystopia, film, inner space, reviews, science fiction, suburbia
The final version of Thomas Cazals’ tribute, ‘J.G. Ballard: The Oracle of Shepperton’, has been released. It’s one of the stranger JGB ‘adaptations’ around, and is told with considerable flair and skill.
By Mike B • Feb 21st, 2008 •
Category: Shanghai, Shepperton, Steven Spielberg, WWII, autobiography, consumerism, interviews
Here’s the last in our batch of transcripts of recent Miracles promotions: James Naughtie’s interview with JGB for BBC Radio 4.
By Mike B • Feb 17th, 2008 •
Category: Iain Sinclair, Salvador Dali, Shanghai, Shepperton, WWII, autobiography, interviews, speed & violence, surrealism, visual art
Here’s a transcription of the BBC Radio Front Row review of Miracles, presented by Mark Lawson and featuring Iain Sinclair and Hermione Lee.
By Mike B • Feb 14th, 2008 •
Category: Shanghai, Shepperton, Steven Spielberg, WWII, autobiography, celebrity culture, interviews
This one’s a transcript of BBC 2’s Newsnight Review segment on Miracles of Life. It features Tony Parsons, Julie Myerson and John Harris and is presented by Kirsty Wark.
By Simon Sellars • Feb 14th, 2008 •
Category: Ballardosphere, audio, autobiography
Miracles is BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week.
By Ballardian • Feb 7th, 2008 •
Category: Shanghai, Shepperton, WWII, alternate worlds, autobiography, consumerism, interviews
Here’s a transcript of Philip Dodd’s recent BBC Radio 3 interview with JGB.
By Simon Sellars • Feb 2nd, 2008 •
Category: Shanghai, Shepperton, WWII, autobiography, bibliography, non-fiction
From amazon.co.uk:
Synopsis
‘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 […]
By Simon Sellars • Feb 2nd, 2008 •
Category: Ballardosphere, autobiography
Recent media action surrounding Miracles of Life.
By Simon Sellars • Jan 29th, 2008 •
Category: Ballardosphere, autobiography, boredom, psychology, science fiction, speed & violence, visual art
The Times has two more extracts from Miracles of Life. In the first, Ballard reminisces about his time as a trainee air force pilot. In the second, he discusses the ideas behind Crash.
By Simon Sellars • Jan 25th, 2008 •
Category: Ballardosphere, Shanghai, Shepperton, WWII, autobiography
Still from Hari Kunzru’s interview with J.G. Ballard. © Waterstone’s Books Quarterly.
Waterstones is featuring a video interview with JGB, conducted by Hari Kunzru to promote Miracles of Life. There are no surprises here. Kunzru asks Ballard about the relationship of Miracles to JGB’s semi-autobiographical novels, Empire of the Sun and The Kindness of Women, and […]
By Simon Sellars • Jan 20th, 2008 •
Category: Ballardosphere, Lead Story, Shanghai, WWII, autobiography, features
The Times is featuring an extract from Ballard’s forthcoming autobiography, Miracles of Life. There’s also an accompanying interview, in which it’s revealed that Ballard has been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.
By Simon Sellars • Dec 16th, 2007 •
Category: Shanghai, WWII, autobiography
From the BBC World Service:
World Book Club - J.G. Ballard (Radio)
(24 January, 2008)
January’s guest is J.G. Ballard talking about his novel Empire Of The Sun with Harriet Gilbert and a studio audience. Each month an internationally renowned author discusses their most celebrated novel with presenter Harriet Gilbert. To be part of the audience and […]
By Simon Sellars • Dec 10th, 2007 •
Category: Ballardosphere, Lead Story, WWII, advertising, autobiography, surrealism, urban ruins
The publicity machine is warming up for Ballard’s forthcoming autobiography, Miracles of Life, due for publication February 2008.
By Simon Sellars • Sep 26th, 2007 •
Category: Ballardosphere, William Burroughs, autobiography
Above is the cover for J.G. Ballard’s forthcoming autobiography, to be published by Fourth Estate (and previously announced here).
Meanwhile, the Burroughs crowd over at Reality Studio are having spirited words about the chosen title… They’ve also voiced an intriguing proposition, a ‘what if’ scenario to get the good old synapses firing: imagine if […]
By Pedro Groppo • Sep 14th, 2007 •
Category: David Cronenberg, Shanghai, Steven Spielberg, WWII, YouTube, autobiography, features, film, filmography, flying
Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun (more at YouTube.)
by Pedro Groppo
EMPIRE OF THE SUN (1987)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenplay: Tom Stoppard, based on the novel by J.G. Ballard
Starring: Christian Bale, John Malkovich
Whereas the sensibilities of J. G. Ballard and David Cronenberg, who directed Crash (1996), seem to overlap and complement each other, one would be hard-pressed […]
By Simon Sellars • Sep 4th, 2007 •
Category: Ballardosphere, autobiography
Major news just in via David Pringle.
From last week’s Bookseller:
Ballard memoir to HarperCollins
31.08.07 Sarah Finley
Fourth Estate editorial director Clare Reihill has acquired J G Ballard’s autobiography Miracles of Life from agent Maggie Hanbury. Reihill bought British and Commonwealth rights in the memoir, due in February next year.
Ballard, most famous for Crash and the autobiographical novel, […]
By Simon Sellars • Aug 18th, 2007 •
Category: Ballardosphere, Shanghai, Steven Spielberg, WWII, YouTube, autobiography, film
Over on BallardoTube, the “China Odyssey” doco on the making of Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun has appeared. Ballard features prominently.
Don’t forget part two.
[ thanks Pedro! ]