As I stated on the introductory page explaining the brief; I am totally unfamiliar with the works of HG Wells. My first steps were to read up a bit about him and find out who he was and what kind of stuff he wrote!

The only title I was familiar with is War of the worlds. Growing up, my dad listened to the soundtrack music to this title (I will explain that a bit more later!) and as a youngster I used to play the piano, one of my exam pieces was to actually play War of the worlds! I know the story is to do with aliens taking over earth etc but apart from that I couldn’t tell you a lot else!

Who was HG Wells?

So.. HG Wells, otherwise known as the “father of science fiction” was an English writer born on September 21st 1866. He wrote several titles many being science fiction but some being social novels which still have relevance today. He was a novelist, teacher, historian and journalist. Wells influenced the exploration of Mars so much so that a crater on the surface of the planet was named after him.

He was a futurist, (which may help me in my designs moving forwards with a futurism influence) he liked to try and predict coming events and possibilities for the future of the earth. He liked writing about recreational war games which then developed into tales about alien abductions and aliens taking over the earth. His science fiction imagined time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, and biological engineering.

His most famous works were The war of the worlds (1898), The time machine (1895) The invisible man (1897) and The war in the air (1907). HG Wells was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature 4 times.

HG Wells specialised in Biology. His logic and thinking was influenced largely by Darwin. He was also an outspoken socialist and had pacifist views during the first world war. His later works were extremely political. This can be shown in Ann Veronica. He also made reference to lower middle class life with “Kipps” and “The history of Mr Polly”.

Growing up for Wells was a trying time, his parents struggled financially and due to work commitments spent much time apart. As money was short they sent Wells off to become an apprentice draper where he worked 13 hour long days and slept in a dormitory with other apprentices. This would later inspire “Kipp” “The history of Mr Polly” and “The wheels of chance”. He was noticing how wealth and money was distributed along the classes.

He then managed to secure (through the help of his mum) a pupil-teacher position which allowed him to assist in the teaching of younger students. He carried on studying and gained his BA Science degree. When he left school he had no money and went to live with his Aunt, it was while he was there that he took interest in his cousin called Isabel. He later married her but divorced 3 years later. It was around this time he published his first novel “The time machine”.

HG Wells seemed to like the ladies, he remarried again to one of his old students who he fondly named “Jane”. He however had many affairs with many different women he met on his life journey. Some of these women were teachers, feminists and activists.

Wells had a like for art and expressed himself through little drawings and sketches that he would draw on endpapers and pages of his own diaries. They covered a variety of subjects such as politics, literacy and is romantic interests. In 2006 a book was published on “pishuas” which is the name he gave to the drawings he drew about his second wife Amy Catherine (Jane).

HG Wells was also good friends with Winston Churchill up until his death, Churchhill used a line from War of the worlds in one of his speeches about the rise of the Nazis “the gathering storm” he was a big fan of Wells books.

In his last book “Mind at the end of its tether” (1945), he considered the idea that humanity being replaced by another species might not be a bad idea. He referred to the era between the two World Wars as “The Age of Frustration”

Wells died aged 79 on the 13th August 1946 in Regents Park, London from unknown causes.

List of HG Wells fiction novels:

• The Time Machine (1895)
• The Wonderful Visit (1895)
• The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)
• The Wheels of Chance (1896)
• The Invisible Man (1897)
• The War of the Worlds (1898)
• When the Sleeper Wakes (1899)
• Love and Mr Lewisham (1900)
• The First Men in the Moon (1901)
• The Sea Lady (1902)
• The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth (1904)
• Kipps (1905)
• A Modern Utopia (1905)
• In the Days of the Comet (1906)
• The War in the Air (1908)
• Tono-Bungay (1909)
• Ann Veronica (1909)
• The History of Mr Polly (1910)
• The Sleeper Awakes (1910) – revised edition of When the Sleeper Wakes (1899)
• The New Machiavelli (1911)
• Marriage (1912)
• The Passionate Friends (1913)
• The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914)
• The World Set Free (1914)
• Bealby: A Holiday (1915)
• Boon (1915) (as Reginald Bliss)
• The Research Magnificent (1915)
• Mr Britling Sees It Through (1916)
• The Soul of a Bishop (1917)
• Joan and Peter: The Story of an Education (1918)
• The Undying Fire (1919)
• The Secret Places of the Heart (1922)
• Men Like Gods (1923)
• The Dream (1924)
• Christina Alberta’s Father (1925)
• The World of William Clissold (1926)
• Meanwhile (1927)
• Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island (1928)
• The Autocracy of Mr. Parham (1930)
• The Bulpington of Blup (1932)
• The Shape of Things to Come (1933)
• The Croquet Player (1936)
• Brynhild (1937)
• Star Begotten (1937)
• The Camford Visitation (1937)
• Apropos of Dolores (1938)
• The Brothers (1938)
• The Holy Terror (1939)
• Babes in the Darkling Wood (1940)
• All Aboard for Ararat (1940)
• You Can’t Be Too Careful (1941)