The Matador of the Five Towns

Arnold Bennett was born in 1867 in Hanley one of the six towns that formed the Potteries that later joined together to become Stoke On Trent; the area in which most of his works are located. For a short time he worked for his solicitor father before realising that to advance his life he would need to become his own man. Moving to London at 21 he obtained work as a solicitor’s clerk and gradually moved into a career of Journalism.At the turn of the Century he turned full time to writing and shortly thereafter in 1903 he moved to Paris and in 1908 published to great acclaim The Old Wives Tale. With this his reputation was set. Clayhanger and The Old Wives Tale are perhaps his greatest and most lauded novels. But standing next to these are many fine short stories and it is to these in this volume we turn our attention. Bennett bathes us in vignettes of life, of characters that whatever their ambitions are easy to immerse ourselves in.