English novelist. He became prominent in the 1960s for his science fiction works on the theme of catastrophe and collapse of the urban landscape. His fundamentally moral vision is expressed with an unrestrained imagination and a pessimistic irony.
Born in Shanghai, China, he was educated at Cambridge University, England, before becoming a writer. His first novel was
The Drowned World (1962). Later works include the novels
Crash! (1973, filmed 1996),
High-Rise (1975), and
Cocaine Nights (1996), as well as the autobiographical novels
Empire of the Sun (1984, filmed 1987), dealing with his internment in China during World War II, and its sequel
The Kindness of Women (1991). He published an autobiography,
Miracles of Life, in 2008.
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