British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.
The Somerset-born author came to fame in 1968 when short story The Sentinel was made into the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by director Stanley Kubrick.
Sir Arthur's vision of future space travel and computing captured the popular imagination.
More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7304004.stm
BAA electronic bulletin No. 00335 -- http://www.britastro.org/
Sadly, you may already have heard that Sir Arthur C. Clarke died yesterday (March 18th) at the age of 90. I'm sure many of you like me are saddened on hearing this news.
However, you may also be interested to know that Sir Arthur, who was born in Minehead, Somerset and lived at Taunton during his early years, joined the BAA at the age of 27 in June 1945 just as the Second World War was coming to an end. He was a regular contributor to the BAA Journal, from the outset writing articles on radar reflections from the Moon and geostationary satellites during his very first few years as a member. Although he wrote on a wide range of subjects including travel, he is of course best known for his literary works on science fiction. He continued to write the occasional item for the Journal well into the 1970s. A great man that's for sure and one the like of whom we shall never meet again.
Richard Miles
Vice-President