The Martians are coming!

This is a depiction of a Martian tripod as imagined by HG Wells in his celebrated novel, The War of the Worlds. It is located in Woking near the HG Wells Centre which is an entertainment and conference venue. HG Wells lived in Woking when he wrote the book and set the landing of Martians on Earth on nearby Horsell Common. The author's near namesake, Orson Welles, famously broadcast his production of The War of the Worlds on radio in the USA in the 1930s. It was so realistic that thousands of listeners were reported to have run into the streets in panic.