Aliens and adultery: The life of HG Wells

5:59pm Thursday 21st August 2008

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Often lauded as the father of science fiction, best-selling author HG Wells was as prolific with women as he was with his pen.

But long before his masterpiece The War of the Worlds was a success, Wells was just an ordinary young man leading an ordinary life - at 28 Haldon Road, West Hill - struggling with his career and marriage.

Born in Bromley in 1866 Herbert George Wells began reading sci-fi tales aged seven when he was bed-bound after a broken leg.

After private school education he tried and failed at apprenticeships as a draper and chemists assistant before studying biology at what is now Imperial College London.

Here he felt more comfortable, joining the debating team and becoming a member of the Fabian Society, as well as founding a science magazine.

But after losing his scholarship in 1893 (due to his lack of interest in geology) he turned to writing.

Two years earlier Wells had moved into Haldon Road with his aunt and his cousin Isabel Mary Wells, whom he married at All Saints Church on October 31, that year.

The marriage was not successful and by 1895 Wells has met and married Amy Robbins - with whom he had two sons - before embarking on many extra marrital affairs.

He bedded the eugenicist Margaret Sanger and the novelist Elizabeth von Arnim, and In 1909 had a daughter with the writer Amber Reeves.

In 1914 he followed that up with a son by the feminist Rebecca West - who was 26 years his junior.

Despite these indiscretions his wife remained married to him until her death in 1927.

“I was never a great amorist,” Wells wrote in Experiment in Autobiography, “though I have loved several people very deeply.”

Short stories, novels, screen plays and non-fiction were all genres Wells was published in, but it is his early sci-fi novels that still draw acclaim today.

And it was his knowledge of the landmarks in Wandsworth and across south London he used to magnificent effect in The War of the Worlds, published in 1898.

After talking about Richmond Park and Kingston Hill he says of Putney: “The bridge was almost lost in a tangle of weed, and at Richmond, too, the Thames water poured in a broad and shallow stream across the meadows of Hampton and Twickenham. I found the water was sufficiently shallow for me to wade securely.”

But early on Wells’ writing was treated with derision.

A report from Mrs Usher, writing the Wandsworth Historical Society in 1966, reflects this. “Wells was not understood nor was his work appreciated,” she said. “Many years ago, as a small girl, I often walked with my Grandfather who lived at No.52 Haldon Road. He used to point out No.28 saying ‘a silly little man lived there: he writes a lot of nonsense’.”

And Wells left more than literature when he died in 1946.

Also a talented artist, Wells loved sketching and used some of his own illustrations in his books.

He was also a diabetic and in 1934 became a founding member of what is now Diabetes UK.

He is even credited as the creator of the modern “recreational” war game, after he wrote Little Wars in 1903.

Famously The War of the Worlds was adapted by Orson Wells in 1938 - leading many to believe aliens had landed on earth.

With thanks to Wandsworth Historical Society