The Old Wives Tale deals with the lives of two very different sisters, Constance and Sophia Baines, following their stories from their youth, working in their mother's draper's shop, through the period of separation and quite different lives, into old age. It covers a period of about 70 years from roughly 1840 to 1905, and is set in Paris and Burslem, a town in the Potteries district of North Staffordshire.

Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was an English writer. He is best known as a novelist, but he also worked in other fields such as the theatre, journalism, propaganda and films. After working as a rent collector and solicitor's clerk, Bennett won a writing contest which convinced him to become a journalist. He later turned to the writing of novels, including his most famous Clayhanger and Anna of the five towns. Bennett's novel The Old Wives' Tale was an immediate success throughout the English-speaking world and it was hailed as a masterpiece.