The word nice has had such a bad press that my fingers hesitate to type it. Such an inadequate adjective, so we were taught at school: to be used only when you mean “slight” or “subtle” – a nice difference, a nice distinction – and never to mean “pleasant” or “agreeable”. My first newspaper felt the same about “tasteful”. “An adjective which although used in a complimentary sense contrives to be faintly insulting,” said the stylebook. “It is chiefly associated with decorations or with the performances of concert artists. If all that can be said about flowers or colour schemes is that they are tasteful, one had better say nothing.”
Other than for food, clothes and children’s treats, shopping was a process of looking rather than buying
Related: Bawden and battenberg: the Lyons teashop lithographs
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