Which British novelist wrote 'The War of the Worlds'?

H. G. Wells wrote “The War of the Worlds.” The English science-fiction novel was first published in book form by William Heinemann in 1898 after magazine serialisation in Pearson’s Magazine and Cosmopolitan during 1897.

The story describes an invasion of Earth by technologically advanced Martians. Its unnamed narrator witnesses the attack in Surrey and the wider devastation across southern England, while humanity’s weapons prove ineffective against machines such as the iconic tripods.

Wells used the invasion narrative to examine imperialism, militarism, scientific confidence, and the vulnerability of supposedly dominant societies. The novel is considered one of the foundational works of modern science fiction and helped popularize the idea of an organized extraterrestrial invasion.

A famous related event occurred in 1938, when Orson Welles directed and narrated a radio adaptation in the United States. Some listeners reportedly mistook portions of the broadcast for real news, although the scale of the resulting panic has been debated. Jules Verne was another important science-fiction pioneer, but Wells wrote this particular novel.