PLAZA THEATRE.

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 134, 3 December 1941, Page 12

PLAZA THEATRE.

H. G. Wells's "Kipps."

H. G. Wells's Kipps, the famous writer's most beloved character, comes to life in the film of that name which opens on Friday at the Plaza Theatre. "Kipps," which is one of .Wells s most popular novels, is the simple story of a humble soul. Some people have considered it the story 'of the author's own early life. It follows the experience of a young shop clerk who loses his job. but then finds that he is the heir to a large fortune. This opens new "vistas to him. He is accepted into the higher circles of society, and almost forgets about his childhood sweetheart.- ..But after, all his adventures, he remembers that he.is still the simple fellow Kipps. Michael Redgrave and Diana Wynyard are starred. H. G. Wells was born at a small general shop in Bromley, Kent, September 21, 1866. He sprang from the lower middle class of society, his father being a professional cricketer and his mother the daughter of an innkeeper. Neither of them was particularly happy in their world, and the failure of the shop in Bromley compelled Wells's mother to become alady's maid in a large house. Wells himself at the "age of 13 was taken from school and apprenticed to a chemist. The project failed, however, and he was then attached to a draper. A draper he; would have always remained had he not devoted himself to study; but he managed to secure a pupil-teachership at Midhurst Grammar School in 1882, and by hard work later won a scholarship and a grant which enabled him to study at London University, where he graduated with first-class honours in zoology in 1888. For some years after that date he was a demonstrator and lecturer in biology, but his interest in writing was steadily growing, and with the valuable encouragement of W. E. Henley he turned definitely to journalism in 1893. The story of Wells's life from that time is the story of his intellectual development as evidenced in his books.