H.G.(Herbert George) Wells (1866-1946), born of lower middle class parents, was largely self-educated. A government scholarship allowed him to attended the Royal College of Science where he studied with Thomas Henry Huxley.

Although he wrote a number of different types of fiction as well as non-fiction, he is best remembered for his science fiction. His firm grounding in science shows forth in this genre.

In 1938, Orson Welles, broadcast a dramatization on radio of H. G. Wells' novel "The War of the Worlds", which was so believable that people fled their homes to avoid the Martian invasion.