The accomplished author died a few days ago at 78. This, at Guardian:
[As a] science fiction author [he] "wasn't interested in the far future, spaceships and all that", he explained; rather he was interested in "the evolving world, the world of hidden persuaders, of the communications landscape developing, of mass tourism, of the vast conformist suburbs dominated by television - that was a form of science fiction, and it was already here".
Ballard was the first author who brought the vision of bleakness and dystopia into my teenage life.
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I first read Ballard when I was about 10. Terminal Beach, if I recall properly. In some pulp mag. He fit in well with my then and now generally dystopian viewpoint.