Sir Arthur C Clarke, who died on 19 March, 2008, in Sri Lanka, was one of the world’s best-selling science fiction authors, best known for his collaboration with Stanley Kubrick on the seminal film 2001: A Space Odyssey .

The ground-breaking film, released in 1968, was an amalgamation of several of his short stories and he wrote a novel at the same time as the Oscar-nominated screenplay.

In total he penned more than 30 novels and 10 original short story collections. He also wrote numerous influential papers on science and - despite the misgivings about space travel featured in his stories - he contributed several advancements to the field.

He was born in Minehead on the Somerset coast on 16 December, 1917. His interest in science fiction stemmed from the magazines that American sailors would bring with them into the country and he began writing stories for fanzines during his teens.

His family’s lack of wealth stymied his university ambitions, so he took a job as an auditor. He was a radar specialist in the RAF during the Second World War, an experience that would later be dramatised in the novel Glide Path (1963). After leaving the forces he was finally able to take his degree and graduated with a first from King's College, London.

He became a member of the British Interplanetary Society and worked on the very first development of telecommunications satellites. He is also credited with formulating the geostationary orbit, an orbit at the same speed at the earth’s rotation also known as a ‘Clarke orbit’. According to the astronomer Sir Patrick Moore, he forecast men on the moon by 1970.

He sold his first short story to Astounding Science Fiction in 1946. His first novel, Prelude to Space, was written in a 20-day period in 1947, but it wasn’t published until 1951, by which time he had a strong reputation as a short story writer. He moved to Sri Lanka and went full-time after this.

His prolific output generally centred on a cynical, pessimistic view of technological advances and the human condition, tied in with his scientific interests at the time. For instance, Childhood’s End (1953) revolves around Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s contemporary ‘Omega Point’ theory about technology and knowledge reaching an ultimate peak, while monster story The Deep Range (1957) stems from his exploration of the Great Barrier Reef at the time.

The basis for the film 2001 was The Sentinel, a short story written in 1948, but it also contained elements of the stories Encounter at Dawn and Rescue Party. The wide-ranging plot begins with primitive man being awakened by alien technology and culminates in a space craft’s computer system murdering its crew.

The film won an Oscar for its special effects – which included a giant obelisk descending among apes, elaborate space craft, weightlessness, a timely psychedelic depiction of light speed and an orbiting foetus – but it was the examination of the potential perils of space exploration that really struck a chord in 1968 when the space race was nearing its finale.

Like many of Arthur C Clarke’s works, 2001 also scrutinises the way mankind’s possible roots might affect its future. There are intrinsic links in many of his novels between ancient mythology and an ultimate apocalypse, as seen in titles such as Rendezvous with Rama (1972), The Fountains of Paradise (1979), A Meeting with Medusa (1988) and of course Odyssey itself. All the above centre on some form of futuristic transport – Clarke was telling us that by trying to play God, we are carrying ourselves towards our doom.

Yet despite predicting man’s downfall through his own hubris, Mr Clarke’s stories were a great inspiration to those wishing to contribute to the advancement of technology.

"I’m sure we would not have had men on the moon if it had not been for Wells and Verne," he told US Congress in 1975. "I’m rather proud of the fact that I know several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books."

He continued writing a book every two or three years over the next two decades, as well as short stories, articles and two ‘scientific autobiographies’. He wrote three Odyssey sequels which followed on from the film’s variation on the plot rather than the novel’s. He also presented a pair of television series of sci-fi adventures.

In the 1990s he began collaborating with other authors such as Gentry Lee, Mike McQuay and Stephen Baxter. Firstborn, his third book with the latter, was published in 2007 and was his last published work. He was also known for his long-running correspondence with C S Lewis in the 1940s and two visionary authors’ letters were published in 2003.

Arthur C Clarke, whose accolades included a CBE, a knighthood, a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, a distinguished vice-presidency of the H G Wells Society and the highest civilian award from his adopted home country of Sri Lanka, had been paralysed by a bout of polio in 1962 and spent much time in a wheelchair. He was married to Marilyn Mayfield between 1953 and 1964. He died aged 90 in the early hours of 19 March, 2008, after heart and respiratory failure.