
Miracles of Life
J. G. Ballard(Author)
Tim Pigott-Smith(Speaker)
Fourth Estate Ltd (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 4. February 2008
Audio
CD-Audio
978-0-00-727329-4 (ISBN)
Description
'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.
J.G. Ballard was, for over fifty years, one of this country's most significant writers. Beginning with the events that inspired his classic novel, "Empire of the Sun", in this revelatory autobiography he charts the course of his astonishing life.
"Miracles of Life" takes us from the vibrant surroundings of pre-war Shanghai, to the deprivations and unexpected freedoms of Lunghua Camp, to Ballard's arrival in a devastated Britain. Ballard recounts his first attempts at fiction and his part in the social and artistic revolutions of the 60s. He describes his friendships with figures as diverse as Kingsley Amis, Michael Moorcock and Eduardo Paolozzi alongside recollections of his domestic life in Shepperton - raising three children as a single father following the unexpected and premature death of his wife.
"Miracles of Life" is both a captivating narrative of the experiences that have shaped this extraordinary writer's works, his distinctive outlook and his original visions of the future, and is also an account of a remarkable life.
J.G. Ballard was, for over fifty years, one of this country's most significant writers. Beginning with the events that inspired his classic novel, "Empire of the Sun", in this revelatory autobiography he charts the course of his astonishing life.
"Miracles of Life" takes us from the vibrant surroundings of pre-war Shanghai, to the deprivations and unexpected freedoms of Lunghua Camp, to Ballard's arrival in a devastated Britain. Ballard recounts his first attempts at fiction and his part in the social and artistic revolutions of the 60s. He describes his friendships with figures as diverse as Kingsley Amis, Michael Moorcock and Eduardo Paolozzi alongside recollections of his domestic life in Shepperton - raising three children as a single father following the unexpected and premature death of his wife.
"Miracles of Life" is both a captivating narrative of the experiences that have shaped this extraordinary writer's works, his distinctive outlook and his original visions of the future, and is also an account of a remarkable life.
Reviews / Votes
'Beautifully read by Tim Pigott-Smith, this story breathes magic into pre-war Shanghai, and presents an awe-inspiring picture of the prison-camp existence...no fiction could compete with this faithful yet hallucinatory rendering of reality.' ScotsmanMore details
Edition
Abridged edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Edition type
Abridged edition
Product notice
Audio CD
Dimensions
Height: 125 mm
Width: 142 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Duration
Dauer: 265 min
Weight
190 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-727329-4 (9780007273294)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

J. G. Ballard
Miracles of Life
E-Book
09/2008
1st Edition
Fourth Estate Ltd
€7.79
Available for download
Persons
J.G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, where his father was a businessman. After internment in a civilian prison camp, he and his family returned to England in 1946. He published his first novel, The Drowned World, in 1961. His 1984 bestseller 'Empire of the Sun' won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was later filmed by Steven Spielberg. His most recent novel is 'Kingdom Come', published in 2006.