The Lost Companions and John Ruskins Guild of St George

This important work in Ruskin studies provides for the first time an authoritative study of Ruskins Guild of St George. It introduces new material that is important in its own right as a significant piece of social history, and as a means to re-examine Ruskins Guild idea of self-sufficient, co-operative agrarian communities founded on principles of artisanal (non-mechanised) labour, creativity and environmental sustainability. The remarkable story of William Graham and other Companions lost to Guild history provides a means to fundamentally transform our understanding of Ruskins utopianism.