Portland Public Library

Miracles of life, Shanghai to Shepperton : an autobiography, J.G. Ballard

eng

autobiography

illustrations

no index present

non fiction

Miracles of life

783162510

J.G. Ballard

Shanghai to Shepperton : an autobiography

J.G. Ballard has been, 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

PART I -- 1.Shanghai Arrival (1930) -- 2.Japanese Invasion (1937) -- 3.War in Europe (1939) -- 4.My Parents -- 5.The Attack on Pearl Harbor (1941) -- 6.Lunghua Camp (1943) -- 7.Chess, Boredom and a Certain Estrangement (1943) -- 8.American Air Raids (1944) -- 9.The Railway Station (1945) -- 10.War's End (1945) -- PART II -- 11.Take it on the Chin (1946) -- 12.Cambridge Blues (1949) -- 13.Screaming Popes (1951) -- 14.Vital Discoveries (1953) -- 15.Miracles of Life (1955) -- 16.This is Tomorrow (1956) -- 17.Wise Women (1964) -- 18.The Atrocity Exhibition (1966) -- 19.Healing Times (1967) -- 20.New Sculpture (1969) -- 21.Lunches and Films (1987) -- 22.Return to Shanghai (1991)