BBC One Documentary
I was recently interviewed for a BBC One documentary about the life of H. G. Wells, titled 'Future Tense: The Story of H. G. Wells.' Broadcast on television on 16 September 2016, the documentary was part of a range of events celebrating the 150th anniversary of Wells' birth, including talks, an academic conference, guided walks through Woking and art projects themed around Wells' novels.
My involvement in the documentary came out of discussions with the producers about Wells' lasting influence in science fiction. My interview focussed specifically on two of his early scientific romances – The Time Machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1898) – two texts that I have been teaching at Birkbeck and thinking about over the past couple of years as I extend my research into science fiction. Other interviewees in the documentary include the film critic and broadcaster Kim Newman, British SF novelist Stephen Baxter, Professor Simon John James (author of Maps of Utopia: H. G. Wells, Modernity and the End of Culture [OUP, 2012]), the novelist Louisa Treger, Michael Sherborne (Wells' biographer), and the historian Dr Emelyne Godfrey.
Dr Caroline Edwards is Senior Lecturer in Modern & Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research and teaching specialisms are in 21st century literature and critical theory, science fiction and post-apocalyptic narratives, Marxist aesthetics, and utopianism.
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