From Across the Sea of Stars, Farewell Arthur C Clarke

Sir Arthur C Clarke was one of my favourite writers since the age of ten when I first read the Sentinel and when my Dad first took me to see a special showing of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clarke's extraordinary visionary prowess and ability to render amazing concepts in the most approachable language have allowed his work to endure in timeless fascination.

His friend and fellow futurist Isaac Asimov summed up, not only what science-fiction and Clarke's fiction in particular means to me, but what it means to countless people across the world:

"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all."

The BBC's Alastair Lawson recalls an interview in Sri Lanka with the legendary science-fiction writer who died on Wednesday:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7306743.stm