Arnold Bennett is famous for his realistic novels about the Five Towns - the 'Five Towns' being the pottery towns of his youth. His virtuosity as a writer was his manner of depicting simple things and ordinary people in an intriguing way for the readers. He has a warm and kind understanding for his characters, particularly when describing the intricate details of their dreary routine lives. (Enoch) Arnold Bennett was born in Hanley, Staffordshire, in 1867. Arnold followed his father into the legal profession but at the age of 21, he decided to leave his father's firm and moved to London and worked as a solicitor's clerk. He won a literary competition in "Tit Bits" magazine in 1889 and in 1893 became assistant editor of the journal, Woman. He published his first essentially autobiographical novel The Man from the North in 1898. His best work is contained in his novels of the 'Five Towns' which include Anna of the Five Towns (1902), The Old Wives' Tale (1908), Clayhanger (1910), The Card (1911), Hilda Lessways (1911) and These Twain (1916). During the First World War, he became Director of Propaganda at the War Ministry. He refused a knighthood in 1918. In 1926, he began writing an influential weekly article on books for the Evening Standard newspaper.