H.G. Wells: The Time Machine, 1895
The year 2025 marks an anniversary of one of Britain’s most famous and best-selling authors making his first mark in the literary world. It was in 1895 that the Bromley-born H.G. Wells published his first novel The Time Machine. Wells (1866 – 1946) was quick to see the possibilities of the machine age. In The Time Machine he drew on his scientific knowledge gained from his education and blended it with fantasy. His career quickly boomed thanks to further mind-stretching and melodramatic adventure stories such as The First Men in the Moon (1901) written in similar vein as the nineteenth-century French author Jules Verne.
The blue plaque for the author H.G. Wells is situated in Market Square, Bromley on the wall of the Primark department store (previously Allders and, before that, Medhurst’s).
The year 2025 marks an anniversary of one of Britain’s most famous and best-selling authors making his first mark in the literary world. It was in 1895 that the Bromley-born H.G. Wells published his first novel The Time Machine. Wells (1866 – 1946) was quick to see the possibilities of the machine age. In The Time Machine he drew on his scientific knowledge gained from his education and blended it with fantasy. His career quickly boomed thanks to further mind-stretching and melodramatic adventure stories such as The First Men in the Moon (1901) written in similar vein as the nineteenth-century French author Jules Verne.
The blue plaque for the author H.G. Wells is situated in Market Square, Bromley on the wall of the Primark department store (previously Allders and, before that, Medhurst’s).
The Time Machine
Michael Foot the former Leader of the Labour Party wrote in 1996: ‘The early twentieth century was an age of great novelists; H.G. Wells among the foremost of the many.’ Wells wrote more than 80 novels – and innumerable other written works on multiple topics such as biology, economics, education, invention, politics, religion and war. A trick question at a Quiz Night is to ask which book by H.G. Wells sold the most copies in his lifetime. It would be natural to guess that his best-selling book was one of his famous, imaginative sci-fi novels such as The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, or The War of the Worlds? But no – the correct answer is The Outline of History – his prophetic, provocative book about the state of the world and the future of mankind. It was published in serial parts in 1919 and 1920. It sold more than two million copies.
Today in your local lending library or bookshop you likely will find H.G. Wells on the Classic Fiction shelf. Science fiction author Brian Aldiss wrote in 2005 that the adventure stories of H.G. Wells, especially The War of the Worlds (1898) are eternal works of genius and amazing creativity.
Photo: This splendid replica of the Time Machine, from the 1960 film of the H.G. Wells book, was displayed in Bromley in 2016.
Michael Foot the former Leader of the Labour Party wrote in 1996: ‘The early twentieth century was an age of great novelists; H.G. Wells among the foremost of the many.’ Wells wrote more than 80 novels – and innumerable other written works on multiple topics such as biology, economics, education, invention, politics, religion and war. A trick question at a Quiz Night is to ask which book by H.G. Wells sold the most copies in his lifetime. It would be natural to guess that his best-selling book was one of his famous, imaginative sci-fi novels such as The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, or The War of the Worlds? But no – the correct answer is The Outline of History – his prophetic, provocative book about the state of the world and the future of mankind. It was published in serial parts in 1919 and 1920. It sold more than two million copies.
Today in your local lending library or bookshop you likely will find H.G. Wells on the Classic Fiction shelf. Science fiction author Brian Aldiss wrote in 2005 that the adventure stories of H.G. Wells, especially The War of the Worlds (1898) are eternal works of genius and amazing creativity.
Photo: This splendid replica of the Time Machine, from the 1960 film of the H.G. Wells book, was displayed in Bromley in 2016.
H.G. Wells in Bromley
In The War in the Air (1908), Wells averred that Bun Hill, alias Bromley, was situated six miles away from the great glittering Crystal Palace. He depicted the growing dismay of the locals as they witnessed the coming of the railway; then houses and shops: more and more of them; gasworks and waterworks and drainage that made the water vanish out of the Otterbourne and left it a dreadful ditch; motor cars and more motor cars travelling northward and southward that grew more and more powerful, whizzed faster and smelled worse; great clangorous petrol lorries delivering coal and parcels in place of the vanishing horse-vans; motor-omnibuses ousting the horse-omnibuses; even the Kentish strawberries going Londonward in the night taking to machinery and being affected in flavour by petrol.
When several years ago the Churchill Theatre in Bromley staged The Invisible Man, the title role of this H.G. Wells adaptation was taken by the actor Brian Murphy of fame in the television series Last of the Summer Wine. The audience was treated to some dazzling stage-trickery and visual effects whereby doors, drawers and windows opened on their own and floorboards in empty rooms shook and creaked. It was great fun but I do wonder if the staff at the box-office of the Churchill became weary of people phoning up and joking to them: I would like tickets please to see The Invisible Man!
The above feature on H.G. wells is an extract from our new local history book Sign Here! (second edition 2024) that can be purchased [Price £4.95] from the Croft Tea Room or by e-mail [email protected]
In The War in the Air (1908), Wells averred that Bun Hill, alias Bromley, was situated six miles away from the great glittering Crystal Palace. He depicted the growing dismay of the locals as they witnessed the coming of the railway; then houses and shops: more and more of them; gasworks and waterworks and drainage that made the water vanish out of the Otterbourne and left it a dreadful ditch; motor cars and more motor cars travelling northward and southward that grew more and more powerful, whizzed faster and smelled worse; great clangorous petrol lorries delivering coal and parcels in place of the vanishing horse-vans; motor-omnibuses ousting the horse-omnibuses; even the Kentish strawberries going Londonward in the night taking to machinery and being affected in flavour by petrol.
When several years ago the Churchill Theatre in Bromley staged The Invisible Man, the title role of this H.G. Wells adaptation was taken by the actor Brian Murphy of fame in the television series Last of the Summer Wine. The audience was treated to some dazzling stage-trickery and visual effects whereby doors, drawers and windows opened on their own and floorboards in empty rooms shook and creaked. It was great fun but I do wonder if the staff at the box-office of the Churchill became weary of people phoning up and joking to them: I would like tickets please to see The Invisible Man!
The above feature on H.G. wells is an extract from our new local history book Sign Here! (second edition 2024) that can be purchased [Price £4.95] from the Croft Tea Room or by e-mail [email protected]