Q 01/05

In which Kent town was H. G. Wells born in 1866?

A) Canterbury

B) Maidstone

C) Bromley

D) Folkestone

Answer · why

C) Bromley

Bromley is where Wells was born, at the china shop his parents kept on the High Street. The business never paid its way, and as the family sank he was...

Q 02/05

How did Wells's father Joseph earn money besides keeping a china shop?

A) Drive a hansom cab around London

B) Play professional cricket for Kent

C) Sing comic songs in music halls

D) Repair clocks and pocket watches

Answer · why

B) Play professional cricket for Kent

Play professional cricket for Kent: Joseph Wells bowled for the county in 1862 and 1863, once taking four Sussex wickets with four successive balls. A...

Q 03/05

What childhood accident in 1874 turned young Wells into a devoted reader?

A) A near-drowning in the Thames

B) A fall from a runaway horse

C) A broken leg that left him bedridden

D) A scalding that kept him indoors

Answer · why

C) A broken leg that left him bedridden

A broken leg that left him bedridden for weeks gave the boy his first long spell with books, which his father fetched from the library. Wells later ca...

Q 04/05

Wells's miserable teenage apprenticeship at a Southsea drapery inspired which novels?

A) The Time Machine and The Invisible Man

B) Tono-Bungay and Ann Veronica

C) Marriage and The Passionate Friends

D) Kipps and The History of Mr Polly

Answer · why

D) Kipps and The History of Mr Polly

Kipps and The History of Mr Polly both start their heroes as drapery apprentices, as Wells was, working thirteen-hour days and sleeping in a dormitory...

Q 05/05

Which ancient book in the library at Uppark, where his mother was housekeeper, set the teenage Wells questioning society?

A) Aristotle's Politics

B) Plato's Republic

C) Homer's Odyssey

D) Euclid's Elements

Answer · why

B) Plato's Republic

Plato's Republic showed the teenage Wells, he wrote, that law and custom might be thrown into the melting pot and made anew. He read it lying on the g...