Gillian Naylor (1931-2014)

摘要

Born in Sheffield, she went from grammar school to Somerville College, Oxford to read modern languages. At Oxford, she first encountered art history in lectures by Slade Professor Ernst Gombrich. On graduation, she moved to London to be close to her mother (her father had died tragically just before she was born, and she was an only child), with ambitions to pursue a career as a writer. After a brief stint working at Who's Who, in 1957 she joined the staff of Design magazine at the Council for Industrial Design (COID), then under the editorship of Michael Farr. Amongst her many early articles was an interview with Robin Darwin, principal of the RCA, and a feature on the Ulm School. As one of very few women writers for Design magazine, she was also assigned supposedly 'female' interest stories, such as those concerning textiles. Her circle in the design world at that time included Paul Reilly, Gordon Russell, Ken Garland and the owner of Primavera, Henry Rothschild. With a burgeoning interest in design history, specifically in the Arts and Crafts Movement and the Bauhaus, she approached the publisher Studio Vista, with proposals for books on both subjects, in around 1961. The Bauhaus was published in 1968, followed by The Arts and Crafts Movement in 1971.