As war breaks out, our hero flees with his wife to try and shield her from the horrors of battle and bloodshed. Can he re-establish the romantic idyll he once enjoyed?

Concluded by Robert Bathurst.

Written in 1901, this is a disturbing vision of the future - as Wells comes uncannily close to predicting the horrors of the Second World War.

English author and political philosopher, HG Wells is recognised as one of sci-fi's founding-fathers. Within his own lifetime, he became a literary celebrity, earning praise from contemporaries such as Henry James and Joseph Conrad. His influence was wide reaching; George Orwell in particular - "The minds of all of us, and therefore the physical world, would be perceptibly different if Wells never existed." In recent years his work has enjoyed a renaissance, including Steven Spielberg's 2005 film of War Of The Worlds.

Wells died on August 13th, 1946, aged 79.

Producer: Gemma Jenkins

Made for BBC Radio 7 and first broadcast in 2006. Show less