If you're enjoying send me to sleep, make sure that you've followed the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and any other podcast player you use.

Also, if you have a moment, please wait and review the show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. All of this really helps the show reach new listeners, and you never know, your review may convince someone to listen and lead them to a good night's rest,

which I hope you all agree is worth sharing. Thanks so much for your listenership and support.

Hey, it's Andrew here. Now's your chance to reply to questions and calls for feedback from myself and all your favourite podcasters on Spotify.

Every new episode could have a Q&A or poll with a topic for you to weigh in on, so let your voice be heard.

I personally love reading through your comments and reviews for episodes, and your feedback is always so useful in making improvements to the show.

View our latest episodes to respond to our Q&As and polls today. Thanks everyone.

Good evening.

Tonight, I'll be reading chapters 13 and 14 of The War of the Worlds by HG Wells.

So let your eyes fall heavy and your breath soften as we settle in for a peaceful night's sleep.

Chapter 13. How I fell in with the curate.

After getting this sudden lesson in the power of terrestrial weapons, the Martians retreated to their original position upon horse or common.

And in their haste and encumbered with the debris of their smashed companion, they no doubt overlooked many such astray and negligible victim as myself.

Had they left their comrade and pushed on forth with, there was nothing at the time between them and London but batteries of 12 pounder guns, and they would certainly have reached the capital in advance of the tidings of their approach as sudden, dreadful and destructive their advent would have been.

As the earthquakes that destroyed Lisbon a century ago.

But they were in no hurry.

Cylinder followed Cylinder on its interplanetary flight. Every 24 hours brought them reinforcements.

And meanwhile, the military and naval authorities now fully alive to the tremendous power of their antagonists worked with furious energy.

Every minute of fresh gun came into position until, before twilight, every cops, every row of suburban villas on the hilly slopes about Kingston and Richmond, masked an expectant black muzzle.

And through the charred and desolate area, perhaps 20 square miles altogether, that encircled the Martian encampment on horse or common.

Through charred and ruined villages among the green trees, through the blackened and smoking arcades that had been but a day ago, pine spinies, crawled the devoted scouts with heliographs that were presently torn the gunners of the Martian approach.

But the Martians now understood our command of artillery and the danger of human proximity, and not a man ventured within a mile of either Cylinder, save at the price of his life.

...