Invasion

A theme of British history is invasion, or sometimes just fear of invasion, of this island from the nearby Continent. A theme of science fiction is alien invasion of Earth. And the British theme generated the sf theme because HG Wells wrote The War Of The Worlds in which Martian invaders of Earth land in England! The two themes remained intertwined:

in CS Lewis' Perelandra, published during World War II, Lewis as character fears that Ransom, who has been to Mars and is still in contact with the presiding intelligence of that planet, has become a bridgehead for alien invasion of Earth;

instead, Lewis as author reverses the alien invasion theme by showing Terrestrial evil polluting Venus;

after the War, fictional alien invasions continued on British television in Quatermass and Doctor Who.

We know that Poul Anderson wrote a Martian invasion novel with almost the same title as Wells' but Anderson also addressed the British invasion theme. In different passages of his "Time Patrol," Saxons and Jutes invade England and Germans bomb London. This story, most notable for its inspiration by and incorporation of one of Dr Watson's untold cases, should also be appreciated for its vivid presentation of these two periods of British history, with the word "British" meanwhile changing its meaning.