THE YOUNG H.G. WELLS Changing the World

Anne Flosnik generally does a lovely job with the latest H.G. Wells biography, this one by the award-winning Claire Tomalin. Although the word "young" in this audiobook stretches past the age of 40, Wells's behavior justifies the adjective. The period includes the bulk of his best and most influential work. Flosnik does not attempt to create voices for Wells's friends, including George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, and Bertrand Russell, but she changes her tone enough to indicate where the quotations begin and end. An occasional distraction comes from Flosnik's r's and v's. Many authors' lives are not that interesting--they sit and write--but Wells lived fully and entertainingly, and is worth knowing. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2022]