British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.
Born in Somerset, he came to fame in 1968 when a short story The Sentinel was made into the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by director Stanley Kubrick. ( BBC )
Once called "the first dweller in the electronic cottage", his vision of future space travel and computing captured the popular imagination.
An aide said he died at 0130 local time after a cardio-respiratory attack.
A farmer's son, Sir Arthur was educated at Huish's Grammar School in Taunton before joining the civil service.
During World War II, Clarke volunteered for the Royal Air Force, where he worked in the then highly-secretive development of radar and thought up the concept of communication satellites.
Sir Arthur's vivid and detailed descriptions of space shuttles, super-computers and rapid communications systems were enjoyed by millions of readers around the world.
He was the author of more than 100 fiction and non-fiction books, and his writings are credited by many observers with giving science fiction a human and practical face.
In the 1940s Clarke maintained man would reach the moon by the year 2000, an idea dismissed at the time.
British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore had known Sir Arthur since they met as teenagers at the British Interplanetary Society.
Sir Patrick paid tribute to his friend, remembering him as "a very sincere person" with "a strong sense of humour".
Tributes have also come from George Whitesides, the executive director of the National Space Society, with which Sir Arthur served on the board of governors, and fellow science fiction writer Terry Pratchett.
After a failed marriage Sir Arthur moved to Sri Lanka, then called Ceylon, in 1956, where he lived with a business partner and his family, and pursued his interest in scuba-diving.
His status as the grand old man of science fiction was threatened when, in 1998, allegations of child abuse, which he strenuously denied, caused the confirmation of a knighthood to be delayed. Sir Arthur was cleared by an investigation. From 1995, the author was largely confined to a wheelchair, suffering from post-polio syndrome.