Our next event takes place on the 1st April 2019 and will mark the 10th anniversary of British author J. G. Ballard’s death, with an event on his 1975 novel High Rise. Our panel will feature three expert speakers on contemporary literature, science fiction and … Continue reading High-Rise (2015)
Tag: books

What would J G Ballard have made of the new High-Rise film?
Writing for the New Statesman in March 2016, Will Self mulled over what his friend Jim (the novelist J G Ballard to the rest of us mortals) would have thought about Ben Wheatley’s 2015 screen adaptation. Read an extract from Self’s article below. In Ballard’s … Continue reading What would J G Ballard have made of the new High-Rise film?

Why the dark world of High-Rise is not so far from reality
The new film adaption of JG Ballard’s classic 1975 novel High-Rise has been a while coming. Much like the power-cuts that interrupt life in the novel’s namesake, various attempts to translate the book for cinema have been erratic, and ultimately failed. But with director Ben … Continue reading Why the dark world of High-Rise is not so far from reality
The Papers of James Graham Ballard: High-Rise
Held by the British Library and part of the digital Discovering Literature: 20th Century exhibition, these pages from c.1974 give an insight into Ballard’s editing process as he was writing High-Rise. Shown here are two sheets of summary notes, as well as the opening pages from an early draft of the novel. Both were first written out on a typewriter, and later heavily annotated and revised by hand in blue and black pen.
To view the pages more closely, visit the collection page on http://www.bl.uk here.
Our next event takes place on the 1st April 2019 and will mark the 10th anniversary of British author J. G. Ballard’s death, with an event on his 1975 novel High-Rise. Our panel will feature three expert speakers on contemporary literature, science fiction and urban design: Prof. Roger Luckhurst, Dr. Aiden Tynan, and Dr. Günter Gassner.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Tickets are available on Eventbrite.

J G Ballard on what’s wrong with London and relieving boredom with a Kalashikov
In an interview with Chris Hall in 2003, J G Ballard expounded on his belief that London needed a freeway system comparable to that in LA among other things. These unpublished excerpts were eventually published in the Architect’s Journal on 29 April 2009, shortly after Ballard’s … Continue reading J G Ballard on what’s wrong with London and relieving boredom with a Kalashikov

Cardiff BookTalk event: High Rise by J.G. Ballard, Monday 1st April 2019
Our second BookTalk event of 2019 will mark the 10th anniversary of British author J. G. Ballard’s death, with an event on his iconic novel High Rise (1975). This event will bring together experts on contemporary literature, science fiction and urban design to discuss some … Continue reading Cardiff BookTalk event: High Rise by J.G. Ballard, Monday 1st April 2019

Discovering the Poetry of Ursula K. Le Guin
Following on from our popular previous event commemorating the 50th anniversary of Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea in November 2018, BookTalk volunteer Christie Collins delved into the vast poetic oeuvre Le Guin left behind.