Travelling in Time: 160 Years of H.G. Wells

H.G. Wells (1866-1946) is best known as the classic science-fiction author who invented the idea of time travel and imagined the Martian invasion of south-east England. But there is much more to his long life, from his early struggles as a shop assistant to his later career as political propagandist, educator, and advocate of human rights. This talk will cover his visions of ‘the shape of things to come’ and some key moments from his own past, including his teenage years in and around Midhurst, and the cycling trips through Surrey recalled in his novel The Wheels of Chance. Above all, it will portray the writer whom his friend the Cranleigh resident Frank Swinnerton called ‘the merry, affectionate genius whom we knew and loved.’