Wallpaper is, of course, paper sold to stick on walls to make them look pretty, or cover cracks, or both. Oddly I haven’t got a single photo of wallpaper. Here’s some fancy panelling (at Bolsover castle). It’s a wall covering and made from the same stuff as paper …

Wallpaper can also mean an unobtrusive background, often background noise.

I don’t recall every coming across wallpaper as a writing term until it appeared in a lovely review of Firestarter a while back. Ooops, I got two in the screenshot!

In this context wallpaper means background, setting or location. It can form an important part of the story, or just be there to stop the reader feeling the action happening in a void.

What kind of wallpaper do you like?