Riceyman Steps

Riceyman Steps is a novel by British novelist Arnold Bennett, first published in 1923 and winner of that year's James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

Arnold Bennett was a keen amateur sailor and it was while on sailing trips on the Solent he discovered a chaotic second-hand bookshop in Southampton.

It deals with the final year in the life of its main character, Henry Earlforward, a miser with a slight limp, who keeps a second-hand bookshop in the Clerkenwell area of London, at Riceyman Steps.

All the while Elsie stands devoted to the couple, despite having problems of her own—she pines secretly for Joe, and pilfers food to binge eat at night.

Their lives—in which Henry's passion for money and his obstinacy finally consume himself and his wife—are contrasted to that of their loyal maid servant Elsie Sprickett, and it is the latter, despite her extreme poverty, who brings life and a future to the bittersweet tale.

Granville Place in 1924, with 'Riceyman Steps' leading up to Granville Square.