Novelist, born near Hanley, Staffordshire, C England, UK. He studied locally and at London University, and was a solicitor’s clerk in London, but quickly transferred to journalism, and in 1893 became assistant editor (editor in 1896) of the journal Woman. He published his first novel, The Man from the North, in 1898. In 1902 he moved to Paris for 10 years and from then on was engaged exclusively in writing. His claims to recognition as a novelist rest mainly on the early Anna of the Five Towns (1902), the more celebrated The Old Wives’ Tale (1908), and the Clayhanger series - Clayhanger (1910), Hilda Lessways (1911), These Twain (1916), subsequently issued (1925) as The Clayhanger Family - all of which feature the ‘Five Towns’, centres of the pottery industry. He was an influential critic, and as Jacob Tonson on The New Age he was a discerning reviewer. His Journals were published posthumously.