H.G. Wells was a professional writer and journalist, who published more than a hundred books, including novels, histories, essays and programmes for world regeneration. Wells's prophetic imagination was first displayed in pioneering works of science fiction, but later he became an apostle of socialism, science and progress. His controversial views on sexual equality and the shape of a truly developed nation remain directly relevant to our world today. He was, in Bertrand Russell's words, 'an important liberator of thought and action'. John Sutherland is the Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London and a visiting professor of Literature at the California Institute of Technology. He is the author of many books. Simon J. James is Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University of Durham. He has written on, and edited volumes of, George Gissing, H.G. Wells and Charles Dickens.