LONDON Author J.G. Ballard, a survivor of a Japanese prison camp whose vision was so dark and distinctive it was labeled "Ballardian" and who reached a wide audience with the autobiographical "Empire Of The Sun," died Sunday, his agent said. He was 78.

Ballard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006. He had been ill "for several years" and died in London at the home of his long-term partner, his agent Margaret Hanbury said. She did not give the cause of death.

"His acute and visionary observation of contemporary life was distilled into a number of brilliant, powerful novels which have been published all over the world and saw Ballard gain cult status," Hanbury said.

Ballard was born in Shanghai, China, and was interned there in a prison camp by Japanese troops in 1941 an experience he drew upon in the 1984 novel "Empire of The Sun," adapted as a film by Steven Spielberg, an early effort by the director of "Jaws" and "E.T." to take on more serious material.

The movie, released in 1987 and starring a young Christian Bale, didn't attract the usual blockbuster crowds of a Spielberg film, but it did receive six Academy Award nominations. Ballard himself had fond memories of Spielberg ("an intelligent and thoughtful man" who even allowed the author a brief appearance in the movie) and a mixture of awe and confusion about the film's opening in Hollywood.

Known for his dystopian narratives, Ballard also was admired by such rock bands as Radiohead and Joy Division and by songwriter-producer Trevor Horn.