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.