Autor/-in: Robert Best

Robert Dudley Best (1892-1984) was an industrial designer, famous for creating the Bestlite, the first iconic modern object in 1930s Britain. Born into a privileged Birmingham family, he and his brother wanted to be music hall entertainers, but were derailed-first by their industrialist father, R. H. Best, who wanted them to work in his lighting factory and insisted they study at Germany's best art school, in Duesseldorf, and then by WW1, which only Robert survived. He was an early disciple of F. M. Alexander, the posture therapist and guru, and was politically active in the Common Wealth Party, founded in 1942 by J. B. Priestley and Sir Richard Acland, among others. He went on to pen Brass Chandelier, an appreciation of his father's business innovations, and a memoir of his early life, published by EnvelopeBooks as From Bedales to the Boche.