Arnold Bennett

'Arnold Bennett was born in a street called Hope Street. A street less hopeful it would be hard to imagine.' Thus begins Margaret Drabble's biography of a man whose most famous achievement was to re-create, in such novels as The Old Wives' Taleand Clayhanger, the life, atmosphere and character of the 'Five Towns' region in which he was born and grew up. Arnold Bennett is a very personal book. 'Wh...