As Stoke-on-Trent marks 100 years of its city status, the work of one of its most famous sons is set to take to the stage in a world first.
This autumn, Staffordshire’s New Vic Theatre will present the premiere of The Grand Babylon Hotel, an adaptation of a story by acclaimed Stoke-on-Trent author Arnold Bennett, as a centrepiece of the city’s centenary celebrations. Check out our news story.
Here, Ian Weightman reveals more about the man, the city and an Omelette…
Arnold Bennett was born in 1867 – well before Stoke-on-Trent became a city.
It’s hard to explain these days just how big a ‘celebrity’ the lad from “Up ‘Anley” eventually became.
But it’s probably enough to say that he would have been extremely well-known to the man most responsible for granting Stoke-on-Trent its city status in 1925, King George V.
Bennett’s literary legacy is vast.
He was a writer of books, novels, plays and philosophical musings.
He was a journalist, a travel writer, a raconteur and wit, and the Head of War Propaganda during the First World War.
He was a resident of the Savoy Hotel, in London.
He gave his name to an Omelette (still cooked and served by many of the leading chefs and top restaurants in Britain today, https://bit.ly/4jpsYpD).
He lived in France. And Stoke-on-Trent. And London.
And he was mourned nationwide, and paid the highest of respect, when he died.
He also explained to the world how easy it is to spot someone from Stoke-on-Trent (just watch for the people who turn-over their cups, saucers and plates to see where they were made!).
Most importantly of all, however, it was Arnold Bennett who best illustrated the enormous debt which Britain owes to The Potteries of Stoke-on-Trent:
“You cannot drink tea out of a teacup without the aid of the Five Towns,” he said. “You cannot eat a meal in decency without the aid of the Five Towns”.
Bennett’s novels of the ‘Five Towns’ which have attracted a world-wide following for well over a century now were described by the author in great detail in novels such as Anna of the Five Towns, The Old Wives’ Tale, Clayhanger and The Card.
They were filled with “pitheads, chimneys and kilns, tier above tier, dim in their own mists” – very different from the six towns of current day Stoke-on-Trent, but for all that, a fitting tribute to the city’s history and heritage.
Today, Bennett’s statue sits proudly in front of the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, and his books still attract visitors to the city.
Discover more about Bennett and his Potteries connections with Stoke Museums’ The Arnold Bennett Collection featuring paintings and drawings by the author, letters, manuscripts, plays, photographs and books. It also includes objects owned by Bennett and his family (https://bit.ly/444Foyr).
For details about the New Vic Theatre, visit www.newvictheatre.org.uk
For more information on Stoke-on-Trent as a destination, see www.visitstoke.co.uk
To mark Stoke-on-Trent’s 100 years of its city status, commemorative events are being staged throughout 2025 in the city, culminating in a Centenary Celebration beginning on Thursday 5, and reaching a peak over the weekend of 7 and 8 June (https://sot100.org.uk).