The New Vic Theatre has announced full casting for its world premiere production of The Grand Babylon Hotel, a riotous comedy thriller by Arnold Bennett

The New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme will stage the world premiere of The Grand Babylon Hotel, a new adaptation of Arnold Bennett’s only thriller, this autumn

You can do this on your lunch break

Jonathan Taylor “No-one ever comes to Stoke, no-one ever leaves Stoke, except for Arnold Bennett, and even he had to write about it”: when I was growing up in Stoke-on-Trent (aka the Potteries) in the 1970s and 80s, this was a saying that everyone knew. It conveyed Stoke’s insularity, its proud tradition of isolation. At the time, the city was (almost) never mentioned on TV or in books, and felt - to some extent - cut off from the rest of the world.

One of my aims this year is to re-read a few favourite books with the intention of showcasing them here. Arnold Bennett’s marvellous 1902 novel, The Grand Babylon Hotel falls into this category – a…

A collection of short stories written by the University of Leicester’s Dr Jonathan Taylor has won the Arnold Bennet Book Prize.