Stephen Gilbert (novelist)


Stephen Gilbert was a Northern Irish novelist and businessman. He was mostly known for writing the novel Ratman's Notebooks which sold over a million copies.

Career

He was born on July 22, 1912 at Newcastle, County Down, Ireland, and educated at the Leas School in Hoylake and Loretto School in Musselburgh. He worked for the Northern Whig until the mid-1930s, when he joined the family firm of McCausland in Belfast. In 1939, he joined the Supplementary Reserve and served with the 3rd Ulster Searchlight Regiment in France. His wartime memories, including the evacuation at Dunkirk, were the basis for his second novel, Bombardier.
Gilbert was a friend and protégé of Forrest Reid. The friendship lasted until Reid's death in 1947.
His last novel, Ratman's Notebooks, was adapted into a film as Willard in 1971. An original sequel to the film named Ben was released in 1972. The first film was remade in 2003 under the same title.
Stephen Gilbert died at a nursing home at Whitehead, north of Carrickfergus, County Antrim on June 23, 2010 at age 97.

Published works

In 2012, Valancourt Books began reprinting the works of Stephen Gilbert. The Landslide, Bombardier, Monkeyface, The Burnaby Experiments and Ratman's Notebooks are all currently in print.