A while ago, Lee Battersby emailed to say he was running a series of posts about Art over at the Battersblog, and asked me to contribute to the Treacherous Carrot discussion. And, lo. Contribute I did.

Art and beauty and writing — I could’ve talked about this topic for ages…

In February 1880, William Morris delivered a lecture before the Birmingham Society of Arts and School of Design, which was later published in a book called Hopes and Fears for Art. It was during this public lecture, Morris’s first, that the philosophy driving the Arts & Crafts movement was famously summarised. “If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody,” Morris declared, “this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

Replace ‘houses’ with ‘writing’ and now read that sentence aloud.

What you’ve just heard is the mantra that whispers through my mind every time I start writing a story — and which bludgeons me when I go to read one.