Woking MP Will Forster has called for the town’s most famous literary figure, HG Wells, to be honoured with a national day.

This week, he submitted a Parliamentary Early Day Motion proposing that September 21, Wells’ birthday, be officially recognised in national calendars to celebrate the author’s contribution to literature, culture and science.

The Liberal Democrat MP said: “As the founding father of science fiction, HG Wells’ legacy is as relevant today as ever. From Back to the Future to last year’s War of the Worlds remake, every science book, film or TV show owes something to his work.

“The Parliamentary Motion I have submitted pays tribute to Wells’ time living in Woking, where he wrote The War of the Worlds, and calls for an official HG Wells Day so his achievements are remembered for generations to come.”

Born in Bromley, Kent in 1866, Herbert George Wells moved to Maybury Road, Woking, in May 1895 and stayed until September 1896. His brief stay in the town was highly productive, yielding The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man and The Island of Doctor Moreau.

Cycling trips across Horsell Common inspired the Martian landing in The War of the Worlds, with Woking’s countryside providing the backdrop for one of literature’s first alien invasion stories.

The proposal has been welcomed by the HG Wells Society.

Treasurer Eric Jukes said: “Wells’ connection to Woking is not just geographic; it is also symbolic. The town was a place of intellectual ferment for Wells, where his ideas about science, society and the future could take root and grow.

“By establishing HG Wells Day on his birthday, we honour not only his literary genius but also the forward-thinking ideals that still influence writers, scientists and thinkers around the world.”

The society’s vice-president Dr Michael Sherborne added: “In May 1895, shortly after perfecting the time-travel story in The Time Machine, Wells moved to Woking.

“Having suffered ill health, he was keen to escape London’s smoky atmosphere while retaining the ability to travel into the city by rail.

“He built up his strength through cycling and canoeing, and once settled in, invented the space invasion story in The War of the Worlds, cycling round the district so that he could make the story more vivid by setting it on location.”

Wells is already celebrated locally with public art, including a bronze statue in Wells Plaza and a Martian tripod sculpture in Crown Square.

While no British author has an official national day, other greats are remembered on their birthdays, including William Shakespeare on April 23 and Charles Dickens on February 7.

Later this year, Jane Austen’s 250th birthday will be marked on December 16, with events planned across Hampshire, where she lived and wrote.

Early Day Motions are formal motions submitted for debate in the House of Commons, although few are debated. They are mainly used to draw attention to specific events or causes.