Born Enoch Arnold Bennett in Hope Street,
Hanley,
Stoke-on-Trent in 1867. Born into
poverty, Arnold rose to become the region's foremost
writer, and was even compared to
Dickens.
Despite being poor when young, his father did succeed as a solicitor and Arnold joined his practice. He eventually left and moved to London in 1889 after winning an award in "Tit Bits", a magazine of the time.
He then bacame the assistant editor of "Woman" in 1894 and wrote his first novel shotly after.
He wrote primarily about ordinary people and most of the novels were centred around Stoke-on-Trent, in his "Five Towns" novels. These included :-
- Anna of the five towns
- clayhanger
- the Old Wives Tale
He also wrote a novel called "the Imperial Palace", which was set in the Savoy hotel. Because of this, the hotel created an omelette in his honour, called the Omelette Arnold Bennett
He died in 1931 from typhoid and is buried in Burslem