Sir Fred Hoyle was the first astronomer to publicise his subject through the media of radio and television which, in the 1950s, made him a notable public figure. He was also one of the first theoretical astronomers of his time, whose work stirred up major controversies in his own discipline and others. His first outstanding and still undisputed achievement was to show how, first carbon, and then all the heavier elements, were created by thermonuclear reactions inside stars whose explosive ends then scattered them through space - thus making possible life and the other chemical complexities we observe around us.