Despite being crippled with post-polio syndrome and confined to a wheelchair, Arthur C. Clarke remained active in his twilight years. He was still greatly interested in space and the world around him. Clarke, who died on Wednesday and whose funeral was yesterday, had mastered the internet and scanned it for latest developments in science and technology, while communicating with friends and admirers by e-mail.
As he approached 90, Clarke zealously followed space probes to Mars, hoping evidence of life might emerge. 'So far there has been nothing,' he told me during a visit to his Colombo house in 2004. But he remained optimistic, predicting humans would land on Mars in 2021 and 'have some unpleasant surprises'.
Clarke was a big man who laughed easily and retained the distinctive accent of his native Somerset - despite living in Sri Lanka since the 1950s. Balding and bespectacled, he had considerable presence. He looked every inch a space-age visionary, science boffin and English eccentric.
In recent years, his health deteriorated, and his astonishing memory started to fade. He tired easily, but never stopped working. Indeed, shortly before his death, he finished the manuscript for a final novel, The Last Theorem. His enthusiasm was still infectious. He talked optimistically about the future awaiting man in space.
'The golden age of space is only just beginning,' he said. Sometimes his voice shook, and his eyes looked sad as he recalled great contemporaries now dead. Many had been friends. They included the outstanding science fiction writers, American Robert A. Heinlein and Russian-born Isaac Asimov, who, along with Clarke, had been regarded as the 'Big Three' of the genre for decades.
The late astrophysicist Carl Sagan had also been close. Clarke's writing had helped ignite the young Sagan's passion for science. Other friends had included the poet Allen Ginsberg and acclaimed film director Stanley Kubrick. It was Kubrick who had taken a brilliant Clarke short story, The Sentinel, and used it as the basis for the iconic science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968. The two co-wrote the film's screenplay and its cult popularity made both famous.