brush with fame... once removed!

Turns out our elderly neighbor Fred is the brother of none other than Arthur C Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey). He's such a lovely man. He also maintains the Arthur C Clarke library where they have copies of Arthur's books in loads of languages. I think they also fund a book prize and all sorts of stuff.

Fred himself has done all sorts of things in life including publishing his own books which are mostly reminiscences (is that a word?!) from his military career and life in rural Somerset.

We like him because he lets us pick his apple trees and use his old, dead trees for firewood. He's coming over for Sunday lunch next week so we can thank him!

BTW, Arthur C Clarke lives in Sri Lanka. He survived the tsunami though it would seem a lot of his staff may have perished (he runs diving schools or something there). There may be a fundraiser via the library if anyone is interested.