Ramsbottom Grant Arms Hotel in Market Place was the home of William and Daniel Grant, 19th century industrialists closely associated with the rise of the town and reputed to be the inspiration for the Cheeryble brothers in "Nicholas Nickleby" by Charles Dickens. The Grants' employees were paid in tokens that had to be redeemed at a public house owned by the company. The landlord converted the tokens into cash, but only after deducting threepence per person, which had to be spent on beer, a variation on the truck system. A network of roads and railways routed through Ramsbottom allowed for a
Brothers (Yu novel) Baldy Li (李光头) and Song Gang (宋钢), and the collapse of their family during the Cultural Revolution. Labelled as a social novel of late 20th century by The New York Times, "Brothers" deals with the Cultural Revolution and the emergence of Chinese economic reform, which are prevalent within the story plot". Brothers" has experienced great success, shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize and awarded France's Prix Courrier International in 2008 and has sold nearly one million copies in China. It is the longest novel written by Yu Hua. It has over 18 thousand characters in Chinese, well over the