Horace Barks

[1] Barks was born in Ipstones in the Staffordshire countryside and came from a working-class background.

[2] Barks' cultural interests included Esperanto and the writer Arnold Bennett.

Barks and his son Guy were active in the Arnold Bennett Society, which is based in Stoke-on-Trent.

Barks was involved with starting classes at the Wedgwood Memorial College in Barlaston, which remains an important centre of Esperanto education.

[5] There are two posthumous autobiographical publications by Barks, both based on taped reminiscences.