Author of notable science-fiction novels The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine and The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells is another writer to reject the chance to become a knight, although it is unknown when. The 19th and early-20th Century author - who also wrote textbooks, as well as novels in other genres - frequently expressed in his works his dislike of the bourgeois culture of Britain and how he was a pacifist sympathiser. Wells also declined the Order of Merit - which recognises the promotion of culture - because of his outspoken socialist views.