When JG Ballard wrote his autobiography Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton, published earlier this year, it was judged to be a "brief, modest and occasionally shattering book", but was also feared to be his last, after he revealed at the end that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006.
But the happy news from Frankfurt, both for fans of his writing and for the man himself, is that there's more to come from the master of surrealist science fiction. His agent is at the fair, talking to publishers about an outline for a new book from Ballard. With a working title of Conversations with My Physician, it will deal with cancer, but also touch on broader themes, with a subtitle of The Meaning, if Any, of Life.