William Morris and Morris & Co by Lucia van der Post (V&A Publications, £20).

WILLIAM Morris, architect of the Arts and Crafts movement and close acquaintance of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, was no mere designer and manufacturer.

He was a poet, a creator of legends, a man who blurred the boundaries of decoration and literature.

He was a man who strode the twin worlds of myths and mediaeval England and to whom the two were not just sources of imagery, they were a moral inspiration.

Such was the depth of his mystic past and visionary future that, 100 years after his death, his dreamy nostalgia is still influencing our homes.

Morris is the bearded patriarch firmly placed at the top of lineages of modern design.

In his demonstration of the false flummery of Victorian decoration he showed it was possible to juxtapose a densly figured carpet with a simple English country chair.

"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful," he famously said and perhaps. this is why his designs particularly lend themselves to the eclectic interiors that are evolving today.

Morris grew up developing a passion for all things Gothic and saw the benefits of returning to the working patterns of mediaeval England, where guilds were set up to monitor work and the conditions and pay of workers.

It was these ideals that stayed with him throughout his life as a designer, manufacturer, writer and political activist.

After his marriage to Jane Burden in 1859 - furnishings at Red House, their Bexleyheath home, were considered "weird" by conventional visitors - he set up Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company to produce mural decorations, architectural carvings, stained glass, metalwork and furniture.

Fourteen years later, in 1875, he was the sole proprietor. Morris & Co survived his untimely death in 1896, and continued until 1940.

Thanks to Arthur Sanderson & Son and Stead McAlpin, the popularity of Morris designs have not waned in the last 50 years.

In fact, his skills as one of the most versatile and talented of all British pattern designers is appreciated more today, that at any other time in the past.

Lucia van der Post has produced an inspirational book for home owners and interior designers alike.

It is both a lively text and a fascinating insight into the man's design philosophy, putting forward an endearing image of the most highly-regarded interior designer of not just the Victorian Age, but of any age.

David Chapman