Anne Amison

Please describe yourself and your areas of interest.

After a 30-year teaching career in the state sector I was lucky enough to spend 15 years living and working in Venice, where my interest in Ruskin led me to the position of volunteer guide in St Mark’s Basilica, sharing the beauty and history of this wonderful building with visitors from around the world. The tsunami of Brexit, the Venetian aqua granda of 2019 and the pandemic washed me back onto British shores. I volunteer as a guide for the wonderful Burne-Jones/William Morris windows of Birmingham Cathedral, and I am a speaker on aspects of 19th century culture and literature.

Why did you become a Companion of the Guild?

Over the years I have stumbled across Ruskin in so many places that he is now an old friend. I first met him in my teens, as the champion of my beloved Pre-Raphaelites. As a socio-political commentator he continues to have a great impact on my ideology thanks to his influence on the founders of the Labour Party, and on the thinking and activities of my hero, William Morris. As for Ruskin and Venice: barely a day went by when I didn't meet him around a corner: a doorway he sketched, a building he loathed, an artist he loved.