The Illuminated Man

'The best account yet of the life of one of the great English-language writers of the last century.' - The New World
'A brave and moving book' - Adam Sisman, the Guardian
'Fascinating...very timely ...will introduce new readers to a writer Priest rightly calls one of the greatest of the 20th century.' - Sunday Times
This book is about J. G. Ballard. This book is also about death, love and time travel.
J. G. Ballard possessed one of the most astonishing imaginations of our age, and he had an intense and turbulent history - an experience famously fictionalised in Empire of the Sun. Ballard's novels are among the finest and most unusual fiction that has ever been published. Whether in the hyper-surrealism of High-Rise or the erotic violence of Crash, he upended the morality and reality of our world.
As a young writer, it had been Ballard's stories, most of all, that had helped cement Christopher Priest's passion for science fiction. He set out to write a biography that would make people understand what he already knew: that
J. G. Ballard wasn't just a cult writer - he was one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.
In 2024, Christopher died. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, the same disease that killed J. G. Ballard - the man whose biography he'd spent his last months working on.
When Nina and Christopher first met, they bonded over their love for Ballard's writing. When it became clear that Christopher would not have time to finish this biography, Nina promised him that she would complete it. If the book began as a tribute from Priest to Ballard, it is now also a love story written by Nina for Christopher. With access to never-before-seen material, The Illuminated Man explores the history and themes of Ballard's life and - with Ballardian strangeness - celebrates and mourns for those that are gone.

Christopher Priest was the author of 18 novels, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and World Fantasy Award winner The Prestige, which was adapted into the Oscar-nominated film of the same name, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. In 2017 he was the keynote speaker for the J. G. Ballard & The Sciences Conference at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.
Nina Allan is a novelist and critic. Her work has previously won the British Science Fiction Award and the Grand Prix de L'Imaginaire, and been shortlisted for the Hugo Award and the Prix Femina Etranger.
Nina and Christopher first met in 2004. The two began living together in 2011, and talked incessantly of writers and writing for the next 13 years. Unsurprisingly, one of the names that cropped up most frequently was that of J.G. Ballard.

PROLOGUE: 'The White Hotel'
Introduction: 'The Paradises of the Sun'
1. 'Journey Towards the Rain Planet'
2. 'The Eve of Pearl Harbor'
3. 'A Landscape of Airfields'
4. 'A New Arrival'
5. 'The Man with the White Smile'
6. 'The Abandoned Aerodrome'
7. 'The Unlimited Dream Company'
8. 'Exit Strategies'
9. 'Out of the Night and into the Dream'
10. 'Danger in the Streets of the Sky'
ELEVEN. 'The Children's Sanctuary'
12. 'The Naming of New Things'
THIRTEEN. 'Appointment with a Revolution'
FOURTEEN. 'The Sign of the Crab'
15. 'The Depot of Dreams'
SIXTEEN. 'Preparations for Departure'
17. 'A Season for Assassins'
EIGHTEEN. 'The House of Women'
19. 'The Burning Car'
20. 'The Causeways of the Sun'
21. 'A Decline in Property Values'
22. 'The Evening's Entertainment'
23. 'Giving Himself to the Sun'
24. 'The Great American Desert'
TWENTY-FIVE. 'The Third Nile'
26. 'Through the Crash Barrier'
27. 'I Give Myself Away'
TWENTY-EIGHT. 'The Road to Shanghai'
29. 'The Predatory Birds'
THIRTY. 'Too Soon, Too Late'
THIRTY-ONE. 'The Upholstered Apocalypse'
THIRTY-TWO. 'Absolute Zero'
THIRTY-THREE. 'A Task Completed'
THIRTY-FOUR. 'The Illuminated Man'
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Chapter Titles
Notes
Photo permissions
Index