Violent rebellion comes to London's middle classes.
As he searches for the truth behind the Heathrow bomb that killed his ex-wife, psychologist David Markham infiltrates a shadowy protest group based in the comfortable Chelsea Marina.
Led by a charismatic doctor, it aims to rouse the docile middle classes and to free them from the burdens of civic responsibility. Soon Markham is swept up in a campaign that spirals out of control – as the cornerstones of middle England become targets and growing panic grips the capital.
This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard's works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including James Lever, Ali Smith, Hari Kunzru and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs.
Industry Reviews
'Wonderfully warped, blackly comic! written with Ballard's customary panache, its potent mix of sex, violence and radicalism will keep his fans happy. Millennium People is at once deadly serious and slightly ridiculous -- and somehow all the more unsettling for it.' Economist 'Much of the fun of Millennium People -- and it is one of the most amusing novels I've read in a long time -- comes from watching as the world finally catches up with Ballard and Ballard, wryly, reacts.' Guardian 'Terrifying and strangely haunting! A riveting work from a writer of rare imaginative largesse, a bearer of bad tidings, unforgettably told.' Daily Telegraph 'Another disturbing and extraordinary vision exploring the nature of violence and pleasure.' Bookseller 'Ballard's flowing prose exerts its usual hypnotic spell and there are many darkly beautiful moments.' Andrew Martin, Daily Express 'Ballard, acutely fierce as ever, detonates a bomb under Middle England in his continuing attempt to shock the middle classes out of complacency and into violent struggle.' Esquire 'Very weird stuff! This is a tidy and thoroughly English sort of revolution, with the perpetrators considerately ordering skips beforehand. Ballard is a natural surrealist; his is a world where the unthinkable is commonplace and rationality chucked in the towel long ago. However deranged Millennium People might appear, Ballard's phrasing is as sure as ever. He writes wonderfully well about London. His characterisation is as vivid as it is strange. An extremely unsettling novel. Reading it is like having all the planks that underpin your life removed one by one and being forced to confront the brutality and emptiness that lies below.' John Preston, The Scotsman 'The strongest presence must be the sprawling, sinister, banal and electrifying metropolis that is Ballard's London. He has created a compelling city rooted in acute observation and extraordinary imagination. He is in a league of his own! who else could come up with "long-term car park of the soul"?' Sam Phipps, Herald
