James Gordon Farrell came up to Brasenose in 1956 and almost immediately contracted polio. This necessitated treatment in an iron lung, an experience which is generally considered to have led to his becoming a writer. He took his degree in Modern Languages in 1960.
He won the Faber Prize with Troubles and the Booker Prize with The Siege of Krishnapur, the first and second of his three novels on an imperial theme. He also won the Lost Man Booker Prize for Troubles but his career was cut short by his early death in 1979.
J.G. Farrell's literary papers are kept at the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.