For almost half a century, J. G. Ballard has been one of this country's most important writers. In this revelatory autobiography, he charts the course of his remarkable life. Beginning with his early childhood, spent exploring the vibrant surroundings of Shanghai, Miracles of Life takes us from the deprivations and unexpected freedoms of Lunghua Camp, the setting for his novel Empire of the Sun, to his arrival in a Britain physically and psychologically crippled by war. He recounts his first attempts at fiction whilst stationed in a frozen airbase in Canada, his part in the social and artisitc revolutions of the 60s and his life as a single father after the premature death of his wife.