Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead in 1917. During the Second World War he served as a radar instructor for the RAF, rising to the rank of flight-lieutenant. After the war, he entered King¿s College, London taking, in 1948, his B.Sc. in physics and mathematics with first class honours.One of the most respected of all science fiction writers, he has won the Kalinga Prize, the Aviation Space-Writers¿ Prize and the Westinghouse Science Writing Prize. He also shared an Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for the screenplay of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was based on his story, ¿The Sentinel¿. He has lived in Sri Lanka since 1956.