Charles Ashbee - C.R.A., as he asked to be called - must be counted as a successful man. He was an architect whose houses stood up, a designer whose work has always been appreciated, a homosexual who in his fifties became - almost absent-mindedly, it seems - the father of four daughters, and a dreamer who, by founding the Guild of Handicrafts, put his ideals into practice and then kept them going for twenty years. He has not many competitors there.

LRB 19 March 1981 | PDF Download