H.G. Wells: Another Kind of Life
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst finds that H.G. Wells was a lothario even into his old age. Michael Sherborne's biography, Another Kind of Life, is a brilliant portrait of the man and the writer.
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst writes 'A photograph taken in 1895 shows H.G. Wells whizzing along on an early bicycle, with his wife perched nervously on the handlebars. It was a characteristic choice of transport: 1895 was also the year he published The Time Machine, which carefully avoids describing the machine itself in any detail, but pauses lovingly over its “saddle”, as if Wells thought of it as little more than a customised bicycle speeding towards the future. It was one of the many bicycles that wobble their way through his fiction, like little models of the freedom and progress he championed throughout his life. Still, given the number of lovers he managed to collect over the years, as revealed in this sympathetic but clear-eyed biography, he would have been better off learning to drive a bus.'
Read the full review at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/7685567/H-G-Wells-Another-Kind-of-Life-by-Michael-Sherborne-review.html
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst writes 'A photograph taken in 1895 shows H.G. Wells whizzing along on an early bicycle, with his wife perched nervously on the handlebars. It was a characteristic choice of transport: 1895 was also the year he published The Time Machine, which carefully avoids describing the machine itself in any detail, but pauses lovingly over its “saddle”, as if Wells thought of it as little more than a customised bicycle speeding towards the future. It was one of the many bicycles that wobble their way through his fiction, like little models of the freedom and progress he championed throughout his life. Still, given the number of lovers he managed to collect over the years, as revealed in this sympathetic but clear-eyed biography, he would have been better off learning to drive a bus.'
Read the full review at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/7685567/H-G-Wells-Another-Kind-of-Life-by-Michael-Sherborne-review.html
You need to be logged in to post to discussion