A long-neglected twentieth century masterpiece about the lives of two sisters, spanning seventy years of the nineteenth century from Northern England to Paris
Arnold Bennett (Author)
Arnold Bennett was born in Staffordshire on 27 May 1867, the son of
a solicitor. Rather than following his father into the law, Bennett
moved to London at the age of twenty-one and began a career in
writing . His first novel, The Man from the North, was published in
1898 during a spell as editor of a periodical - throughout his life
journalism supplemented his writing career. In 1902 Bennett moved
to Paris, married, and published some of his best known novels,
most of which were set in The Potteries district where he grew up-
Anna of the Five Towns (1902), The Old Wives Tale (1908), and the
Clayhanger series (1910-1918). These works, as well as several
successful plays, established him both in Europe and America as one
of the most popular and acclaimed writers of his era. Bennett
returned to England in 1912, and during the First World War worked
for Lord Beaverbrook in the Ministry of Information. In 1921,
separated from his first wife, he fell in love with an actress,
Dorothy Cheston, with whom he had a child. He received the James
Tait Black Award for his novel Riceyman Steps in 1923. Arnold
Bennett died of typhoid in London on 27 March 1931.
Sathnam Sanghera (Introducer)
Sathnam Sanghera was born to Punjabi immigrant parents in
Wolverhampton in 1976. He entered the education system unable to
speak English but, after attending Wolverhampton Grammar School,
graduated from Christ's College, Cambridge with a first class
degree in English Language and Literature in 1998. He has been
shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards twice, for his memoir The Boy
With The Topknot and his novel Marriage Material, the former being
adapted by BBC Drama in 2017 and named Mind Book of the Year in
2009. He has won numerous prizes for his journalism at The
Financial Times and The Times, including Young Journalist of the
Year in 2002 and Media Commentator of the Year in 2015. He lives in
London.
Bennett's masterpiece... There are few more moving accounts of the
effects of time, the passage of history and the slow encroachment
of age than this remarkable, epic novel
*Guardian*
It's not just a wonderful story; it's also an expressionist
masterpiece, almost surreal at times. It's also an amazing feat of
empathy... It's also very intimate, and highly emotional. In fact,
it's the perfect novel
*Independent*
Arguably the finest novel written by an Englishman in the 20th
century
*Daily Telegraph*
Arnold Bennett did write one indisputable masterpiece, The Old
Wives' Tale, and that is where I recommend you start... Each time
I'm in the midst of reading it, I think it the best novel ever
written
*New York Times*
For Bennett...compassion is not soggy. It involves understanding.
The core of his writing is psychological truth, clinically
observed, crisply reported
*Sunday Times*
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