Christopher Priest and Nina Allan's "The Illuminated Man: Life, Death and the Worlds of J.G. Ballard" (2026)

London, England: Bloomsbury Continuum (book, biography), 2026.
9.5" x 6.5" x 1.625", 486 pages, hardcover in dust jacket, ISBN 978-1-399-41749-5.

The Illuminated Man: Life, Death and the Worlds of J.G. Ballard by Christopher Priest and Nina Allan, as published in hardcover by Bloomsbury Continuum (London, England) in 2026. This is a biography of J. G. Ballard. 

On pages 145–146, Christopher Priest recounts a near-accident in publisher John Calder’s Jaguar, while he, a striptease dancer named Terry Champagne, and William S. Burroughs were in the back seat, riding from Harrogate to their hotel.

Pages 181–184 discuss Ballard’s interview of Burroughs for Esquire and the events of the festival Phun City.

Additional brief mentions of Burroughs may be found at pages 128, 129, and 141.

Contents:

• Nina Allan: foreword
• Christopher Priest and Nina Allan: The Illuminated Man:
• Prologue: 'The White Hotel'
• Introduction: 'The Paradises of the Sun'
• 1. 'Journey Towards the Rain Planet'
• 2. 'The Eve of Pearl Harbor'
• 3. 'A Landscape of Airfields'
• 4. 'A New Arrival'
• 5. 'The Man with the White Smile'
• 6. 'The Abandoned Aerodrome'
• 7. 'The Unlimited Dream Company'
• 8. 'Exit Strategies
• 9. 'Out of the Night and into the Dream'
• 10. 'Danger in the Streets of the Sky'
• 11. 'The Children's Sanctuary'
• 12. 'The Naming of New Things'
• 13. 'Appointment with a Revolution'
• 14. 'The Sign of the Crab'
• 15. 'The Depot of Dreams'
• 16. 'Preparations for Departure'
• 17. 'A Season for Assassins'
• 18. 'The House of Women'
• 19. 'The Burning Car'
• 20. 'The Causeways of the Sun'
• 21. 'A Decline in Property Values'
• 22. 'The Evening's Entertainment'
• 23. 'Giving Himself to the Sun'
• 24. 'The Great American Desert'
• 25. 'The Third Nile'
• 26. 'Through the Crash Barrier'
• 27. 'I Give Myself Away'
• 28. 'The Road to Shanghai'
• 29. 'The Predatory Birds'
• 30. 'Too Soon, Too Late'
• 31. 'The Upholstered Apocalypse'
• 32. 'Absolute Zero'
• 33. 'A Task Completed'
• 34. 'The Illuminated Man'
• Acknowledgments
• Bibliography
• Chapter Titles
• Notes
• Photo permissions
• Index