Arthur C Clarke is the world's foremost writer of SF and accessible science; his predictions have been coming true since he invented the idea of communications satellites in the 1940s 'One of the truly prophetic figures of the space age' New Yorker 'Arthur C. Clarke is one of the true geniuses of our time. I envy him his brain' Ray Bradbury 'Here is the rich variety we have come to expect from the master. Worth grabbing' Kingsley Amis

Arthur C. Clarke, born in 1917, is the world's most famous living sf writer. He was knighted in 1998 for his services to literature, the first science fiction writer to be thus honoured.