Britain Unlimited covers 250 Great British people and what made them famous

Who was H.G. Wells? Novelist. Date and Place of Birth: 21st September 1866, Bromley, Kent, England. Christened Herbert George Wells. Family Background: The son of an unsuccessful tradesman. Education: Local schools. Apprenticed to a draper. Chronology: 1883: Disliked being a draper and became a pupil-teacher at Midhurst Grammar school. He won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science, South Kensington, London, where his biology teacher was T. E. Huxley. As a consequence he became interested in evolution. He founded and edited the "Science Scholar Magazine." 1887: Left the School without graduating. He spent the next few years teaching and writing. 1890: Passed his BSc examinations. 1895: He finally established himself as a novelist with "The Time Machine". 1896: Published "The Island of Doctor Moreau." 1897: Wells was gaining a reputation as a science fiction writer in the United States and wrote for the magazine "Cosmopolitan". 1898: Published "The war of the Worlds". 1900: Wrote "The First Man in the Moon" for "Cosmopolitan". 1901: He began to write works about politics, technology and the future in a non-fiction form. 1902: Published "The Discovery of the Future" which impressed member of the Fabian Society such as George Bernard Shaw and Wells himself became a member. Wells felt that it should not just be a debating society but should be a pressure group fighting for social change. Although many other members resisted him he became a member of the Fabian Society's Executive Committee and tried to change the group. 1908: He was forced to resign from the Fabian Society but continued being active witinh Socialism. 1912: Goes to live with the novelist Rebecca West. 1914: Although he was horrified by the outbreak of the First World War he supported Britain's involvement unlike many of his other socialist colleagues. 1917: Wells was impressed by the Revolution in Russia. 1920: By now he had actually visited Russia himself and become disillusioned and published "The Outlines of History" which held that mankind could only survive by education rather than by revolution. 1922: "The Outlines" was published in an abridged format as "A Short History of the World" and Wells became a famous and well read political writer throughout the rest of the 1920's and 1930's. He contributed widely to the newspapers and magazines of the day. 1933: Published a novel "The Shape of Things to Come" in which he described a world that had been devastated but which was being rebuilt along humanist lines. Many socialists dismissed his work of this period as elitist. 1934: He made visits to the Soviet Union and the United States. 1939: A longtime supporter of the League of Nations after the First World War Wells was appalled by the beginning of the Second World War. 1946: He was still writing about the appalling effects of the Atomic Bomb when he died. Written Works: 1895: “The Time Machine”. 1896: “The Island of Doctor Moreau”. “The Wheels of Chance”. 1897: “The Invisible Man”. “The Plattner Story”. 1898: “The War of the Worlds”. 1899: “When the Sleeper Wakes”. 1900: "Love and Mr Lewisham". 1901: “The First Men in the Moon”. 1904: “The Food of the Gods”. 1905: “Kipps”. “A Modern Utopia”. 1908: “The War in the Air”. 1910: “The History of Mr. Polly”. 1911: “The Country of the Blind”. “The New Machiavelli”. 1916: “Mr. Britling Sees it Through”. 1917: “God the Invisible King”. 1920: “The Outline of History”. 1923: "Men Like Gods". 1926: “The World of William Clissold”. 1933: "The Shape of Things to Come". 1934: “An Experiment in Autobiography”. 1945: “Mind at the End of its Tether”. Marriage: 1. 1891 to his cousin Isabel Wells. 2. 1895 to Amy Katherine (Jane) Robbins. 3. 1912 Lives with but does not marry Rebecca West. Places of Interest: LONDON: The British LiIbrary Date and Place of Death: 13th August 1946, London, England. Age at Death: 80. Site of Grave: Funeral at Golder’s Green Crematorium. Ashes scattered from an aircraft. Further Information: H G Wells Society c/o JR Hammond 49 Beching Thorpe Drive Bottesford Nottingham NG13 0DN