The book also describes the beginning of his literary career, his friendship with pop artist Eduardo Paolozzi, his experimentation culminating in his destructured novel The Atrocity Exhibition, though less space is devoted to the Sixties and the Seventies than to the 15 years spent in Shanghai.

The story of the success of Empire of the Sun and the making of Spielberg's film based on it is told, re-telling in non-novelistic style events already covered in his previous autofiction The Kindness of Women.

The book ends with Ballard's return to Shanghai in 1991, and with a very short and moving epilogue wherein he announces that he is sick with a terminal illness.

However, many elements of Miracles show Ballard's intention to present it as a truthful narrative of his life, such as the pictures of his parents, his wife, his children, and his partner, Claire Walsh.

[5]Much of the added value of the book is to be found in Ballard's witty and insightful remarks that comment on his experiences, but also tie the facts of his childhood and teenage years to the realities of today's globalised world.