Arnold Bennett was born on 27th May 1867 in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent and moved to London in 1889. From 1903 to 1911 he lived mostly in Paris, producing many novels and plays as well as working as a freelance journalist. He died of typhoid fever in London on 27th March 1931. In his writing Bennett based many of the characters, events and places on those that actually existed or happened in the Potteries during the nineteenth century.