Author. He is best known for his novels “Crash” (1973) and “Empire of the Sun” (1984), both of which became motion picture adaptations. He was born James Graham Ballard in Shanghai, China into an English family. As a child he endured life while in an internment camp under Japanese occupation. These events were to become the basis for his bestseller “Empire of the Sun”. His family would return to England in 1946, and he later attended King’s College in Cambridge where he studied medicine. His medical studies yielded to his writing aspirations. After leaving college, he served two years in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and trained as a pilot in Canada. Upon his return to Britain, he became a full-time writer and had one of his short stories appear in the magazine “New Worlds”. In 1961, Ballard wrote his first novel “The Drowned World” and had further works with “The Wind from Nowhere” (1962), “The Crystal World” (1966), “The Assassination Weapon” (1966), “Concrete Island” (1974), “High-Rise” (1975), “The Kindness of Women” (1991), “Cocaine Nights” (1996) and “Kingdom Come” (2006). (bio by: C.S.)  Inscription:James Graham BallardWriter and beloved fatherBorn Shanghai 15 November 1930Died London 19 April 2009