Millennium People
A mysterious figure sparks a rebellion among London's middle classes in the extraordinary new novel from the author of Cocaine Nights andSuper-Cannes.
A bomb at Heathrow appears to psychologist David Markham to be just one more random act of meaningless violence, until he discovers that his ex-wife Laura is among the victims. Following up police suspicions, Markham goes undercover to investigate the growing number of fringe protest groups in London, and falls in with a shadowy movement based in the comfortable Thameside estate of Chelsea Marina. Led by a charismatic doctor, it aims to stir up the docile middle classes, to free them from the self-imposed burdens of civic responsibility and service, pensions and health insurance, private schools and nannies – and to tear down the consumer society in search of a more meaningful existence. As Markham tries to find the truth behind Laura's death, he is swept up in a campaign that spirals rapidly out of control. Every certainty in his life comes into question as the cornerstones of middle England become the targets of violent attack, and a growing panic grips the capital.
J. G. Ballard
James Graham Ballard (1930–2009) was a British novelist and short story writer who was a prominent part of the New Wave in science fiction in the mid- to late-1960s and whose work frequently focused on dystopian themes.
J. G. Ballard's best known books are the controversial novel Crash, an exploration of sexual fetishism connected to automobile accidents, and the semi-autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun, about his childhood internment by the Japanese during World War II after the invasion and conquest of Shanghai, where Ballard was born in the International Settlement. Both books were adapted into films, by David Cronenberg and Stephen Spielberg respectively.