Gerald Bullett


Gerald William Bullett was a British man of letters. He was known as a novelist, essayist, short story writer, critic and poet. He wrote both supernatural fiction and some children's literature. A few of his books were published under the pseudonym Sebastian Fox.

Biography

Bullett was born in London and educated at Jesus College, Cambridge. During the Second World War he worked for the BBC in London, and after the war was a radio broadcaster. Bullett also contributed to the Times Literary Supplement. Politically, Bullett described himself as a "liberal socialist" and claimed to detest "prudery, prohibition, blood sports, central heating, and literary tea parties". Bullett was also an anti-fascist, describing fascism as "gangsterism on a national scale"; he publicly backed the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War.
One of his novels was Mr. Godly Beside Himself, a humorous fantasy story about a modern man who exchanges places with his doppelganger in fairyland. Brian Stableford likens Bullet's novel to other works of post First World War British fantasy, such as Stella Benson's Living Alone, and Hope Mirrlees' Lud-in-the-Mist.
Bullett was a great admirer of Walt Whitman, and wrote an essay on Whitman for the book Great Democrats by Alfred Barratt Brown. Here he described Whitman as "a man full-blooded and brotherly, unselfconscious in his democracy and genuinely at ease with all kinds and classes".
Bullett died in Chichester, West Sussex, on 3 January 1958.

Works