William Morris was a British textile designer, poet, artist, fantasy writer, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British textile arts and methods of production. His literary contributions helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, while he helped win acceptance of socialism in fin de siècle Great Britain.

In this biography, Henderson shows Morris as ‘Not a dreamer lost in sentimental visions of the middle ages, but a man determined to preserve all that is most valuable in our heritage