First, fiction: Tales of Space and Time, is a fantasy and science fiction collection, comprising the three short stories ‘The Crystal Egg’, ‘The Star’, and ‘The Man Who Could Work Miracles’, along with the two five-part novellas ‘A Story of the Stone Age’, and the dystopian ‘A Story of the Days to Come’.

And turning to non-fiction: in A Short History of the World, Wells examines the origins of the Earth, and the development of life upon the planet, as it was understood in his era; and then explores the history of human civilization from its earliest beginnings, through the various empires of world history, up to the aftermath of the First World War, and the League of Nations.

In 1934 Albert Einstein recommended Wells’ book for the study of history as a means of interpreting progress in civilisation.