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In the early 1900s, H. G. Wells was a hugely popular writer of mysteries, prophecies and science fiction - the planets and the bottom of the sea, flying and aerial warfare, space travel, Martians, mermaids, angels, creatures on the Moon, distant islands where animals were turned into monstrous men. Enthralled by his stories and accounts of what he imagined, and his forecasting of the future technologically, socially and politically, few of his readers knew that H. G. Wells was a republican, an atheist and a socialist. How did the first 40 years of his life shape the father of science fiction? From his impoverished childhood in a working class English family and a determination to educate himself at any cost to his complicated marriages, love affair with socialism, and the serious ill health that dominated his 20s and 30s, H. G. Wells's extraordinary early life would set him on a path to become one of the world's most influential writers. The sudden success of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds transformed his life and catapulted him to international fame. He became the writer who most inspired George Orwell, Cyril Connolly and countless others, and predicted men walking on the Moon 70 years before it happened. This remarkable and empathetic biography paints a fascinating portrait of a man driven by curiosity and desiring reform, a socialist and a futurist whose new and imaginative worlds continue to inspire today. By the acclaimed and prize-winning biographer, 254pp, 23 illustrations, some colour. Remainder mark.