Arnold Bennett statue close to completion

A mould is being made of this clay model of the Bennett statue

The sculpting of a full-size figure of the Potteries writer Arnold Bennett has completed its early stages.

A prototype, created from Staffordshire red clay, has been finished by the makers.

With the mould from it in place, the final resin figure could be on display in time for the next Bennett anniversary in 2011.

The statue will stand in Burslem, the setting for many of Bennett's greatest works.

Bennett

The author Arnold Bennett was born in Hanley in what is now Stoke-on-Trent in 1867. His reputation as one of England's greatest realist writers was firmly established by his death in 1931 - but it is especially for his depictions of the Potteries that he is best known.

Books like Anna of The Five Towns and Clayhanger mean that he is the most famous of all the area's literary heroes.

Official parties have been able to visit to see the work

The new statue shows Bennett at the age he would have been in 1910 when he was at the height of his powers. The year 1910 is also the year in which the six towns of the district federated into the one area of Stoke-on-Trent.

Though there are plaques in Stoke-on-Trent remembering the writer, this is the first statue tribute to him in the city. The figure will serve a double purpose in not only remembering Bennett, but also the city's cultural heroes: Stoke-on-Trent is one of the few cities with no public statue of a literary figure.

Statue

The first work on the statue began a decade ago, when a version of the sculpture's head was taken to Paris to be approved by Bennett's daughter Virginia Eldin.

After a series of negotiations, work started at the Burslem Art School on the body late in 2009, when sculptors Michael Talbot and Carl Payne were commissioned to make a sitting figure. The now-finished clay version is quarter size larger than life.

Although composed of resin, the finished statue will appear to be bronze, and will become an exhibit at the Ceramica Museum in Burslem.

Both Michael Talbot and Carl Payne have already contributed sculptures to Stoke-on-Trent's public spaces. Michael Talbot created the Baskeyfield VC and Reginald Mitchell sculptures and Carl Payne was behind the figure of Stanley Matthews at the Britannia Stadium.

Ray Johnson, Vice-President of the Arnold Bennett Society, watches work in progress.

Sponsorship

The fund-raising to pay for the statue is being managed by the Arnold Bennett Society through private donations.

At the foot of the statue will be a pile of books - each one showing the title of one of his novels, but with space for sponsors' names on a book spine.