British author J.G. Ballard is widely acknowledged as one of the most creative modern science fiction writers. Ballards's work goes far beyond what many others in the genre are doing. Rather than focusing on the creation of fantastic new fictional worlds, Ballard often uses the mankind's interaction with technology and modern technology as the basis for his writing. Crash, with it's description of a strange and gruesome human/machine interaction, is a good example of this style.

Ballard was born in Shanghai on November 15, 1930. In 1942, Ballard and his family were put into a Japanese prison camp. This experience was the basis for Ballard's 1984 semi-autobiographical book,Empire of the Sun. The novel was turned into a film by Steven Spielberg and followed up by another book in 1991, The Kindness Of Women.

Ballard returned to England in 1946. He studied Medicine at Oxford but never practiced, and studied English for a year at London University but was kicked out. Wanting to learn how to fly, he then joined the Royal Air Force.

After getting married in 1955 and becoming a father, Ballard worked editing scientific journals as a way to make money. The scientific papers he had access to proved to have a major influence on his writing. Ballard's first short stories were published in 1956.