Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was born in Hanley in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. He was educated in Newcastle-under-Lyme then trained as a solicitor in London before becoming a journalist. His first novel, A Man from the North, was published to critical acclaim in 1898 and from 1900 he was a full-time writer. He wrote both fiction and non-fiction, much of the former based on life in and around a fictionalised version of Stoke-on-Trent, and during World War I he was Director of Propaganda at the War Ministry.