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  • Published: 4 October 2018
  • ISBN: 9781787531628
  • Imprint: BBC DL
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 1 hr 30 min
  • Narrator: David McAlister
  • RRP: $9.99

Ghost Stories by H G Wells

Six chilling tales from BBC Radio 4




Six unsettling stories by the master of supernatural suspense

David McAlister reads six supernatural stories from the author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds

Best known for his science fiction, H.G. Wells was also a master of the ghost story, producing numerous tales of the gothic, the eldritch and the uncanny. These six stories, ranging from the humorous to the horrifying, epitomise the very best of Wells’ occult fiction.

The Moth
Two entomologists are embroiled in a scientific feud. When one dies, the other believes he has discovered a rare new species...

The Story of the Late Mr Elvesham
A medical student gets more than he bargained for when he accepts an old man’s bequest.

The Temptation of Harringay
Struggling with his latest portrait, an artist is shocked to find it taking on a distinctly diabolical air.

The Inexperienced Ghost
A man encounters a timid spirit haunting his club, and helps him out – with dreadful consequences.

The Stolen Body
A psychical researcher attempts an out-of-body experience, with terrifying results.

The Door in the Wall
Lionel Wallace is haunted by the memory of a green door in a white wall, leading to an enchanted garden. Can he ever find it again?

  • Published: 4 October 2018
  • ISBN: 9781787531628
  • Imprint: BBC DL
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 1 hr 30 min
  • Narrator: David McAlister
  • RRP: $9.99

About the author

H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells, the third son of a small shopkeeper, was born in Bromley in 1866. After two years' apprenticeship in a draper's shop, he became a pupil-teacher at Midhurst Grammar School and won a scholarship to study under T. H. Huxley at the Normal School of Science, South Kensington. He taught biology before becoming a professional writer and journalist. He wrote more than a hundred books, including novels, essays, histories and programmes for world regeneration.

Wells, who rose from obscurity to world fame, had an emotionally and intellectually turbulent life. His prophetic imagination was first displayed in pioneering works of science fiction such as The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds (1898). Later he became an apostle of socialism, science and progress, whose anticipations of a future world state include The Shape of Things to Come (1933). His controversial views on sexual equality and women's rights were expressed in the novels Ann Veronica (1909) and The New Machiavelli (1911). He was, in Bertrand Russell's words, 'an important liberator of thought and action'.

Wells drew on his own early struggles in many of his best novels, including Love and Mr Lewisham (1900), Kipps (1905), Tono-Bungay (1909) and The History of Mr Polly (1910). His educational works, some written in collaboration, include The Outline of History (1920) and The Science of Life (1930). His Experiment in Autobiography (2 vols., 1934) reviews his world. He died in London in 1946.

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