William Morris (1834-1896) was the foremost English designer of his time, apolemicist and reformer, poet and traveler. He is regarded as one of the myriadmindedgiants of the nineteenth century, and his graphic and wallpaper designs arestill highly popular today.

Lavinia Greenlaw is a poet, novelist, documentary filmmaker, and BBC broadcaster.She studied seventeenth-century art at the Courtauld Institute of Art and was awardeda three-year NESTA Fellowship to pursue her interest in vision, travel, and perception.Her poetry includes Minsk and The Casual Perfect. She is also the authorof two novels, Mary George of Allnorthover and An Irresponsible Age- Thoughts of aNight Sea (in collaboration with Gerry Fabian Miller), and the nonfiction book TheImportance of Music to Girls. She is a professor of creative writing at the Universityof East Anglia.