HG Wells or Enrique Gaspar: Whose time machine was first?

The HG Wells tale of a Victorian gentleman who voyaged through time on a time machine of his own invention was the one that captured the public's imagination - but it was not the first of its kind.

It may surprise science fiction fans to learn that it was a little-known Spanish playwright who gave birth to the idea of time travel via a mechanical contraption.

But Enrique Gaspar's hour may have finally come - his re-discovered novel will feature as one of the highlights of the British Library's first ever science fiction exhibition next month.

And, thanks largely to the persistence of Spanish science fiction fans, El Anacronopete will be translated into English for the first time, as The Time Ship: A Chrononautical Journey, next year.