In 1964 Ballard's wife Mary died suddenly ofpneumonia, leaving him to raise their threechildren - James, Fay and Bea Ballard - byhimself. Ballard never remarried; however,a few years later his friend and fellow author Michael Moorcockintroduced him to Claire Walsh,who became his partner for the rest of his life(he died at her London residence) and is oftenreferred to in his writings as "Claire Churchill".Walsh, who worked in publishing during the1960s and 70s, was a sounding board formany of his story ideas, and introduced himto the expat community in the south of France which formed the basis of several novels.After the profound shock of his wife's death,Ballard began in 1965 to write the stories thatbecame The Atrocity Exhibition, while continuingto produce stories within the science fiction genre.In 1967 Algis Budrys listed Ballard, Brian W.Aldiss,Roger Zelazny, and Samuel R. Delany as "an earthshaking new kind of" writers, andleaders of the New Wave. The Atrocity Exhibition (1969) proved controversial- it was the subject of an obscenity trial, andin the United States, publisherDoubleday destroyed almost the entire print run before itwas distributed - but it gained Ballard recognitionas a literary writer. It remains one of his iconicworks, and was filmed in 2001.A chapter of The Atrocity Exhibition is titled"Crash!", and in 1970 Ballard organised anexhibition of crashed cars at the New Arts Laboratory,simply called "Crashed Cars".The crashed vehicles were displayed withoutcommentary, inspiring vitriolic responses andvandalism.In both the story and the art exhibition, Ballarddealt with the sexual potential of car crashes,a preoccupation he also explored in a short filmin which he appeared with Gabrielle Drake in1971.His fascination with the topic culminated inthe novel Crash in 1973.The main character of Crash is called JamesBallard and lives in Shepperton, though otherbiographical details do not match the writer,and curiosity about the relationship betweenthe character and his author increased whenBallard suffered a serious automobile accidentshortly after completing the novel.Regardless of real-life basis, Crash, like TheAtrocity Exhibition, was also controversialupon publication. In 1996, the film adaptation by David Cronenberg was met by a tabloid uproar in the UK, with the Daily Mail campaigning actively for it to be banned. In the years following the initial publication of Crash,Ballard produced two further novels:1974's Concrete Island, about a man who becomesstranded in the waste area of a high-speed motorway, and High-Rise, about a modern luxury high riseapartment building's descent into tribal warfare.Although Ballard published several novels andshort story collections throughout the seventiesand eighties, his breakthrough into themainstream came only with Empire of the Sun in 1984, based on his years in Shanghai andtheLunghua internment camp.It became a best-seller,was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and awarded the Guardian FictionPrize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. It made Ballard known to a wider audience,although the books that followed failed to achievethe same degree of success. Empire of the Sun was filmed by Steven Spielberg in 1987, starringa young Christian Bale as Jim (Ballard). Ballardhimself appears briefly in the film, and he hasdescribed the experience of seeing his childhoodmemories reenacted and reinterpreted as bizarre.Ballard continued to write until the end of hislife, and also contributed occasional journalismand criticism to the British press.Of his later novels, Super-Cannes (2000) wasparticularly well received winning the regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize. These later novels often marked a move awayfrom science fiction, instead engaging withelements of a traditional crime novel. Ballardwas offered a CBE in 2003, but refused, calling it"a Ruritanian charade that helps to prop upour top-heavy monarchy". In June 2006, he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, which metastasised to hisspine and ribs.The last of his books published in his lifetimewas the autobiography Miracles of Life, writtenafter his diagnosis. His final published short story,"The Dying Fall", appeared in the 1996 issue106 of Interzone, a British sci-fi magazine.It was reproduced in The Guardian on 25 April2009.
Ballard's biography
In 1964 Ballard's wife Mary died suddenly ofpneumonia, leaving him to raise their threechildren - James, Fay and Bea Ballard - byhimself. Ballard never remarried; however,a few years later his friend and fellow author Michael Moorcockintroduced him to Claire Walsh,who became his partner for the rest of his life(he died at her London residence) and is oftenreferred to in his writings as "Claire Churchill".Walsh, who worked in publishing during the1960s and 70s, was a sounding board formany of his story ideas, and introduced himto the expat community in the south of France which formed the basis of several novels.After the profound shock of his wife's death,Ballard began in 1965 to write the stories thatbecame The Atrocity Exhibition, while continuingto produce stories within the science fiction genre.In 1967 Algis Budrys listed Ballard, Brian W.Aldiss,Roger Zelazny, and Samuel R. Delany as "an earthshaking new kind of" writers, andleaders of the New Wave. The Atrocity Exhibition (1969) proved controversial- it was the subject of an obscenity trial, andin the United States, publisherDoubleday destroyed almost the entire print run before itwas distributed - but it gained Ballard recognitionas a literary writer. It remains one of his iconicworks, and was filmed in 2001.A chapter of The Atrocity Exhibition is titled"Crash!", and in 1970 Ballard organised anexhibition of crashed cars at the New Arts Laboratory,simply called "Crashed Cars".The crashed vehicles were displayed withoutcommentary, inspiring vitriolic responses andvandalism.In both the story and the art exhibition, Ballarddealt with the sexual potential of car crashes,a preoccupation he also explored in a short filmin which he appeared with Gabrielle Drake in1971.His fascination with the topic culminated inthe novel Crash in 1973.The main character of Crash is called JamesBallard and lives in Shepperton, though otherbiographical details do not match the writer,and curiosity about the relationship betweenthe character and his author increased whenBallard suffered a serious automobile accidentshortly after completing the novel.Regardless of real-life basis, Crash, like TheAtrocity Exhibition, was also controversialupon publication. In 1996, the film adaptation by David Cronenberg was met by a tabloid uproar in the UK, with the Daily Mail campaigning actively for it to be banned. In the years following the initial publication of Crash,Ballard produced two further novels:1974's Concrete Island, about a man who becomesstranded in the waste area of a high-speed motorway, and High-Rise, about a modern luxury high riseapartment building's descent into tribal warfare.Although Ballard published several novels andshort story collections throughout the seventiesand eighties, his breakthrough into themainstream came only with Empire of the Sun in 1984, based on his years in Shanghai andtheLunghua internment camp.It became a best-seller,was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and awarded the Guardian FictionPrize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. It made Ballard known to a wider audience,although the books that followed failed to achievethe same degree of success. Empire of the Sun was filmed by Steven Spielberg in 1987, starringa young Christian Bale as Jim (Ballard). Ballardhimself appears briefly in the film, and he hasdescribed the experience of seeing his childhoodmemories reenacted and reinterpreted as bizarre.Ballard continued to write until the end of hislife, and also contributed occasional journalismand criticism to the British press.Of his later novels, Super-Cannes (2000) wasparticularly well received winning the regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize. These later novels often marked a move awayfrom science fiction, instead engaging withelements of a traditional crime novel. Ballardwas offered a CBE in 2003, but refused, calling it"a Ruritanian charade that helps to prop upour top-heavy monarchy". In June 2006, he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, which metastasised to hisspine and ribs.The last of his books published in his lifetimewas the autobiography Miracles of Life, writtenafter his diagnosis. His final published short story,"The Dying Fall", appeared in the 1996 issue106 of Interzone, a British sci-fi magazine.It was reproduced in The Guardian on 25 April2009.