Welcome

Our Bursley Trail Leaflet is now available at Barewall Gallery, Burslem.  Why not have a look around the Gallery  while picking up your copy.



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Thanks to Stoke on Trent City Council and the Arnold Bennett Society, and with kind permission of the new owners of 205 Waterloo Road, there is now a Blue Plaque on the home of Arnold Bennett.  He lived in this house with his parents and siblings from 1879 – 1881.

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ARNOLD BENNETT SOCIETY 

Charity Registration 1140053

Arnold Bennett

Voted greatest West Midland writer in 2005 and appears on the Regional Wall of Fame in Birmingham's City Plaza.
The present Arnold Bennett Society was re-formed in 1954 and has members throughout the United Kingdom as well as abroad.  It is based in the City of Stoke on Trent, the "Five Towns" of Arnold Bennett's novels.
The Society's aim is to promote the study and appreciation of the life, works and times, not only of Arnold Bennett himself, but also of other provincial writers, with particular relationship to North Staffordshire.
An annual dinner is held in Stoke on Trent with a guest speaker of distinction.  Past speakers have included John Suchet, Priscilla Masters, A N Wilson, Deborah Moggach, Dame Margaret Drabble, local historian, Mr Fred Hughes.  The guest of honour in 2014 was Baroness Shirley Williams. The annual dinner is held at The George Hotel, Burslem, the mother town of the Potteries.
In 2014 we will hold our third literary lunch.  The guest speaker will be Mr Sathnam Sanghera, author of Marriage Material and The Boy With The Topknot, it will be held at the North Staffs Conferenc Centre, Hartshill. SOLD OUT. 
The Society is promoting the republication of a series of Bennett's novels, just click on the Books link. You can also get back numbers of our newsletters if available from the editor.
The Past Events button will give you a report on a visit to Fontainebleau  on 11th October 2008 where we unveiled a plaque at Arnold Bennett's former home and more recently a visit to  A Return to Riceyman Steps.  More recently the musical "Darling of the Day" an adaptation of AB's novel "BuriedAlive". Members also receive 3 newsletters each year which include original works, notices, articles and mentions of Bennett in other publications.
We are members of Alliance of Literary Societies  and  Staffordshire Heritage Group and have links to other societies, such as Ford Madox Ford Society, HG Wells and  Staffordshire History.
You can contact the Chairman of the Arnold Bennett Society,
Dr Les Powner – lesliepowner@gmail.com 
The Secretary Carol Gorton at arnoldbennettscty@btinternet.com
Alan Pedley at agcpedley@gmail.com (Editor of the Arnold Bennett Society newsletter)
President:  M Denis Eldin (Arnold Bennett's grandson)
Vice Presidents: Dame Margaret Drabble – James Hepburn – – Professor Ray Johnson MBE – Mr John Shapcott – M Jacques Eldin.
"The B.B.C. claim to have discovered a new type, the middlebrow It consists of people who are hoping that some day they will get used to the stuff they ought to like."
 
Punch, 23 December 1925.
Listen to Geoff Walker, Society member, reading from the short stories on the link below, just click on the Arnold Bennett page. 

 www.knottycoachtrust.org.uk