This book on Mental Efficiency was typical of the self-improvement essays and books that Arnold Bennett produced alongside his outstanding fiction. Even all these years later, it still makes a lot of sense, and modern readers will be amused and instructed! Bennett (1867-1931) was a British novelist. He was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. At age 21 he 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.