JG Ballard, novelist and short-story writer, has died after a long battle will illness, his agent has said.
The 78-year-old author, who was best known for the award-winning Empire of the Sun, a semi-autobiographical novel written in 1984, and his controversial novel, Crash, later adapted into film by David Cronenberg.
His agent, Margaret Hanbury, said it was "with great sadness" that Ballard had passed away this morning after several years of ill health.
In a prolific career the 78-year-old attracted critical acclaim and controversy in equal measure for his work.
Born in Shanghai, China, he was educated at Cambridge University before becoming an RAF pilot, advert agency copywriter, encyclopaedia salesman and assistant editor of scientific journal Chemistry and Industry.
Since arriving in Britain, he built up a passionate readership, particularly after Empire of The Sun, a fictionalised account of his childhood was made into a film by Steven Spielberg in 1987.
The book tells the story of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai, describing his experiences of starvation, survival and death marches.
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