Walter Greenwood was born in 1903 at Salford in Lancashire. He was educated first at Langworthy Road Council School, Salford, and then by himself. He began part-time work as a milkroundsman's boy when he was twelve, then worked, again part-time, with a pawnbroker, before leaving school at the age of thirteen. He later worked as an office boy, a stable boy, a clerk, a packing case maker, a sign-writer, a car-driver, a warehouseman, and a salesman, never earning more than thirty-five shillings a week except while working for a few months in an automobile factory. He was on the 'dole' at least three times. i>Love on the Dole/i>, his first novel, was accepted for publication in 1932, and when it appeared in 1933 it was at once recognized as a classic. He published ten more novels, a volume of short stories and his autobiography, i>There Was a Time/i>. He also wrote plays, several of which have been filmed. Walter Greenwood died in 1974.