Inside The Wire


Inside The Wire

Originally shared by The British Library

J G Ballard was born #onthisday in 1930.

The young Ballard’s World War II internment in the Japanese Lunghua camp near Shanghai informed his 1984 novel ‘Empire of the Sun’. After the novel was published, readers sent Ballard letters; some of congratulations, others criticising his description of the camp. He also received lists, photographs and this wartime blueprint of the camp from 1943.

On it are marked the perimeter fence, barracks, guard houses and vegetable gardens that were Ballard’s home between 1942 and 1945, and which were to influence his writing throughout his life. #BLMaps

Image © Estate of J G Ballard

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