2 January: HG Wells

For National Science Fiction Day, here are ten facts about HG wells, who, along with Jules Verne, has been dubbed “The Father of Science Fiction”.

1. He was born in London on 21 September 1866. His father was a shopkeeper and also a professional cricketer who played for the Kent county team.
2. Wells’ love of literature began in 1874 when an accident left him with a broken leg, and he started reading to pass the time during his recovery.
3. Before he was a writer, Wells worked as a draper, a Newspaper writer and a science teacher. During his time as a teacher, A.A. Milne was one of his students.
4. He didn’t just write fiction. He wrote books on science, history, politics, and sociology. His first published book was Biology text book in 1893.
5. He was a war gamer. He used to play games with toy soldiers with his children and ended up writing books about that, including discussions of the rules. Hence he is described as as the father of modern war gaming as well as of science fiction.
6. He’s on the cover of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
7. Things he wrote about in his books were sometimes quite prophetic. He envisaged the atom bomb, Wikipedia and The EU, but didn’t believe that Submarines would ever work. He couldn’t imagine “any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocate its crew and founder at sea.”
8. He supported votes for women and human rights. He drafted the Sankey Declaration of the Rights of Man, which was incorporated into the United Nations 1948 Declaration of Human Rights. As a socialist and critic of the German government in the 1930s, he was one of the people included in the SS Black Book, which meant had Hitler invaded Britain, he would have been arrested.
9. He was diabetic and helped set up the UK’s leading diabetes charity, the Diabetic Association, now known as Diabetes UK.
10. He died on August 13, 1946. He’d said he wanted his epitaph to read “I told you so. You damned fools,” but in the end, he was cremated, and never got a headstone.

Character birthday

Lily Webster: Appears in Who’s That Girl? She is the younger sister of Matthew (Laserlight), a member of the Freedom League. It looks likely that she is a genetic variant, like her brother, with the power of flight.

Who's That Girl?

Matt Webster lives in a tower block and attends a failing school. He dreams of being a spy like James Bond. Little does he know that he is being watched by someone who can make him into even more than that – a superhero.

His first solo mission is to attend a ball at the Decembrian Embassy and discover who is planning to steal a priceless diamond. While there, he meets the mysterious Lady Antonia du Cane, and is powerfully drawn to her. It soon becomes clear, however, that Lady du Cane is not what she seems. Matt’s quest to discover who she really is almost costs him his career.

A modern day Guy Fawkes gathers a coterie around him with the aim of blowing up Parliament with a nuclear bomb. To achieve this, they need money. Lots of it. Selling the Heart of Decembria Diamond will provide more than enough. All that stands in their way is the Freedom League – but the League is beset by internal disagreements. Can the heroes put their differences aside in time to save the day?

Prime Minister Richard Miller and his wife Fiona grieve for their daughter, Yasmin, who has been missing for three years, and is presumed to be dead. Viper agent Violet Parker could hold the key to what happened to Yasmin, but Violet is accused of giving away the organisation’s secrets. She is to be executed without trial. Will she take her knowledge of what happened to Yasmin with her to her grave?

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