James Graham Ballard was born in Shanghai, China in 1930. He and his parents were part of the British population there before World War II. They were interred by the Japanese in Lunghua Civilian Assembly Centre from 1942 to 1945. Ballard mixed his experiences from that period with fiction in his 1984 novel Empire of the Sun. This book was made into a movie by director Steven Spielberg, and also became the first ever American motion picture granted permission to film in China.

Ballard returned to England in 1946 and later studied medicine at Cambridge. He married and fathered three children. Following the death of his wife he raised his children by himself, writing while they were at school. These years are recounted in his 1991 novel The Kindness of Women. His 1973 book Crash was made into a movie by Canadian director David Cronenberg, starring James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas and Rosanna Arquette.