HG Wells
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Ali Smith and HG Wells webchat – post your questions now

On Tuesday 27 September at 1pm, we’ll be joined by author and HG Wells fan Ali Smith to discuss his life and works, as well as her own writing

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Ali Smith & HG Wells composite
Ali Smith and HG Wells Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi for the Guardian/Prints Collector/Alamy

Post your questions for author and HG Wells fan, Ali Smith!

Sam Jordison

I’m pleased to announce that Ali Smith will be here for a live online Q&A about HG Wells and other things on Tuesday 27 September at 1pm.

In 2015, Ali Smith delivered the second-annual PEN HG Wells lecture, dedicated to the writer, correctly identifying him as “far-seeing” and “exceptionally powerful and exceptionally thoughtful about the workings of power”.

In that speech Smith showed considerable knowledge and feeling for Wells’ life and works – but I should warn you that she claims to be more of a fan of the writer than an expert on his life and novels. It’s probably best to ask for her impressions of the great man than for encyclopedic or obscure remarks. But that’s all to our benefit, because we can stretch out into one of Wells’ favourite realms – that of ideas – rather than get stuck on minutiae. It’s also an incentive to make the most of this opportunity to discuss Smith’s own work.

Like Wells, Smith is a human rights campaigner of force and eloquence and a novelist of considerable talent. Her last book, How to Be Both, won a remarkable treble of prizes in 2014 and 2015, scooping up the Goldsmiths prize, the Costa prize and the Baileys, and was shortlisted for the Booker and the Folio prizes. She has also written five other critically acclaimed novels and five short story collections. Her new novel, Autumn, will arrive in October. It’s a fine body of work, and we are lucky and honoured to be able to talk to her about it, as well as about the brilliant HG Wells.

Smith will be here from 1pm on Tuesday, so post your questions now.

To help get the ball rolling, I’m happy to say that we have five copies of The Rights of Man by HG Wells, with an introduction by Ali Smith to give away to the first five readers from the UK to post “I want a copy please”, along with a nice, constructive question, in the comments section below.

If you’re lucky enough to be one of the first to comment, email Laura Kemp with your address (laura.kemp@theguardian.com) – we can’t track you down ourselves. Be nice to her, too.

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