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  • Published: 1 October 2020
  • ISBN: 9781529128185
  • Imprint: BBC DL
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 31 hr 0 min
  • Narrators: Robert Glenister, Bernard Cribbins, Stephen Murray, Blake Ritson, Paul Daneman, Bill Nighy, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Robert Bathurst, Amy Hoggart
  • RRP: $35.00

The H G Wells BBC Radio Collection

Dramatisations and readings including The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds & other science fiction classics



A BBC collection of readings and dramatisations of the works of H G Wells

H G Wells wrote dozens of novels and short stories, and is often called the "father of science fiction". Here we collect together the works of H G Wells as broadcast on BBC Radio.

With full-cast dramatisations of novels including The Time Machine, The Island of Dr Moreau, The War of the Worlds, Ann Veronica, The First Men in the Moon and The Wonderful Visit; plus readings of The Invisible Man, Love and Mr Lewisham, and several short stories including The Inexperienced Ghost and In the Abyss. Also included is a bonus drama about H G Wells and George Gissing, The Wells Way, and fascinating documentary H G Wells: The Invisible Author.

During his own lifetime, H G Wells was prominent as a forward-looking, prophetic social critic - he foresaw the advent of aircraft, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite TV and something resembling the internet. In the 1930s and 40s he made regular radio broadcasts from the BBC to the nation, and we include a selection of these here. Hear Wells in his own words as he discusses topics as diverse as world politics, the history of the printing press, the possibilities of technology and the shape of things to come...

The stellar casts in this collection include Bill Nighy, Robert Glenister, Bernard Cribbins, Blake Ritson, Amy Hoggart and Julian Rhind-Tutt.

  • Published: 1 October 2020
  • ISBN: 9781529128185
  • Imprint: BBC DL
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 31 hr 0 min
  • Narrators: Robert Glenister, Bernard Cribbins, Stephen Murray, Blake Ritson, Paul Daneman, Bill Nighy, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Robert Bathurst, Amy Hoggart
  • RRP: $35.00

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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