Arnold Bennett's splendidly comic portrayal of Edward Henry Machin, known as Denry to his mother to save time, is set in Bursley, one of the author's Five Towns of Staffordshire. Starting in 1897, when Denry first saw the smoke of the potbanks, the tale chronicles his rise to fame and wealth including such events as improving his exam results to guarantee success, adjusting the guest list of the municipal ball to include himself and then daring to ask the Countess of Chell to dance! Denry is given a week's notice as a result of this last impertinence but soon turns it to his advantage, setting up in business as a Rent Collector and Estate Agent. Eventually Denry becomes Bursley's youngest Mayor having gained the reputation of the Five Towns greatest 'Card'.

Enoch Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was a British novelist born in a modest house in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. At age 21 Arnold, who worked as a rent collector went to London as a solicitor's clerk. He won a literary competition in Tit Bits magazine in 1889 and was encouraged to take up journalism full time. In 1894 he became assistant editor of the periodical Woman. He noticed that the material offered by a syndicate to the magazine was not very good, so he wrote a serial which was bought for 75 pounds. Just over four years later his first novel was published to critical acclaim.

From 1900 he devoted himself full time to writing. He moved to Paris, and spent the next eight years writing novels and plays. In 1908 The Old Wives' Tale was published, and was an immediate success throughout the English-speaking world and hailed as a masterpiece.

During the First World War, he became Director of Propaganda at the War Ministry. He refused a knighthood in 1918.