Crash

A special limited edition of J. G. Ballard’s cult, post-modern and shocking novel

I knew that Vaughan could never really die in a car-crash, but would in some way be re-born through those twisted radiator grilles and cascading windshield glass.

The Collector’s Edition

A former TV scientist turned nightmare angel of the expressway, Robert Vaughan gathers around him a collection of alienated crash victims. Among them is James Ballard, our narrator, who is drawn into a series of erotic atrocities, each more sinister than the last. Vaughan craves the ultimate crash – a head on collision of blood, semen, engine coolant and iconic celebrity.

Alongside Ballard’s cult postmodern novel, this special edition, edited by Chris Beckett, includes never-before-seen reproductions of Ballard’s annotated manuscript pages, essays, stories and material that shine a new light on this modern masterpiece.

Reviews

‘A work of very powerful originality. Ballard is amongst our finest writers of fiction' Anthony Burgess

'One of the few genuine surrealists this country has produced, the possessor of a terrifying and exhilarating imagination' Guardian

'Ballard has issued a series of bulletins on the modern world of almost unerring prescience. Other writers describe; Ballard anticipates' Will Self

'Britain's number one living novelist' John Sutherland, Sunday Times

About the author

J. G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, where his father was a businessman. After internment in a civilian prison camp, his family returned to England after the Second World War. His novels include Empire of the Sun, High-Rise, Cocaine Nights and Super-Cannes. His autobiography Miracles of Life was published in 2008 to much acclaim. He died in 2009.

Chris Beckett is an archivist at the British Library. He catalogued the papers of J.G. Ballard in 2010–11.