HG Wells was a writer and futurologist who is now best known for his science fiction novels. While his left wing politics made him a controversial figure, he was popular in society and influenced many of the most notable thinkers of the early twentieth century.

Herbert George Wells was born on September 21, 1866, in Bromley, Kent, England. His father, Joseph, owned a china shop and was a noted cricketer, and his mother, Sarah, was a former servant. Wells was the youngest of four children. Young Wells's career began when, at the age of seven, he broke his leg and consequently found himself confined to the house. Taking refuge in books, he became fascinated by reading and was soon writing his own short stories. He kept up these activities after recovering and going on to study at Thomas Morley's Commercial Academy.

Unfortunately for Wells, his home life was not an easy one, with his parents' marriage continually on the rocks and finances under strain. When a fractured thigh ended his father's cricket career he was forced to become a draper's apprentice in order to help support the family. Miserable in this job, he went on to an equally miserable spell as an assistant chemist and then as a teacher, each of these positions contributing experiences which he would later use in his fiction. Finally, at the age of seventeen, he won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science, where he studied Biology under TH Huxley. There he joined the debating society and became an ardent socialist, attending lectures at the home of William Morris. Unfortunately, despite an impressive career which led to him founding the famous Royal College of Science Association, he failed to show sufficient commitment to his studies to keep his scholarship, and he ultimately dropped out with no qualifications and no money.

Meeting his day-to-day expenses by working as a tutor, Wells continued to dedicate himself to writing; by 1895 he was successful in publishing his essays and short stories, and six years later he released his first best-selling novel, Anticipations. He went on to write another nineteen novels including such classics as The Time Machine (twice filmed, with Rod Taylor and with Guy Pearce) and War of the Worlds (recently filmed by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Cruise; also the subject of a popular Jeff Wayne musical). His reputation grew in later years because of the accuracy of many of his predictions - he foresaw the coming of mechanized warfare, women's liberation, and the European Union - but this ability to interpret current events, together with the horror of World War I, increasingly caused him to suffer from depression, and despite his great love of humanity, he ultimately held out little hope for it.

Wells's political career included standing for Parliament for the Labour Party, but he soon grew disillusioned with party politics and with democracy itself (as it then functioned). His ideal form of government was a world state and he helped to develop the League of Nations, but was disappointed by its inability to prevent the war. His interest in strategy extended to recreation, where he made significant contributions to the development of game design.

Wells was married twice, first to his cousin Isabel and subsequently to one of his students, Amy Catherine Robbins. The latter relationship produced two sons, George Philip Wells (who would go on to become an important zoologist) and Frank. Amy was apparently comfortable with Wells's continued interest in other women and his several affairs included one with the writer Amber Reeves, by whom he had a daughter, Anna-Jane, and one with the feminist Rebecca West, who bore him a son, Anthony West (later to become a noted author in his own right).He was also involved with Margaret Sanger and with the novelist and adventuress Moura Budberg.

Wells died at home in 1946 after being ill for some time. He once said that if he were to have an epitaph it would say, "I told you so."

YUDDY