Arnold Bennett

Anna of the Five Towns . Arnold Bennett

"The Five Towns"In reality Stoke-on-Trent is an amalgamation (in 1910) of six towns: in order from northwest to southeast, the towns are Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton. "The Five Towns" is a name given to it in novels by Arnold Bennett, who was born in Hanley and lived in the district. He said that he believed "Five Towns" was more euphonious than "Six Towns", so he omitted Fenton (sometimes referred to as "the forgotten town"). He called Stoke "Knype" but used recognisable aliases for the other four towns. PlotAnna lives with her young step-sister Agnes and her twice-widowed father, Ephraim Tellwright, in Bursley. The latter, once an active preacher and teacher in the Methodist movement, has become a domestic tyrant and, because of his miserly attitude to money, a wealthy man.