Today I returned from holiday to the sad news of Ray Bradbury's death. He was 91 years old, and, yes, he had what we might call a "good innings", but for some reason I'd managed to convince myself that Bradbury would never die... He was the October Man. He had something special; something that even Death could not spoil.
The first story I ever shed tears to as an adult was "I Sing the Body Electric".
His collection THE OCTOBER COUNTRY is one of the greatest ever published.
Novels like FAHRENHEIT 451, THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES represent the pinnacle of the field of weird fiction.
Ask one hundred different people what their favourite Bradbury is and you might well get a hundred different answers. He was a genre writer who's talent, vision and view of the world transcended genre fiction. Even people who don't read know his name.
RIP, Ray Bradbury. You were one of the best we've ever had.
"Firmly in the front ranks of the new wave of British horror." - The Guardian
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