Alexander Fullerton (19242008) was a British author of naval and other fiction. Born in 1924 in Suffolk and brought up in France, he was a cadet during the years 1938–1941 at the
Royal Naval College,
Dartmouth from the age of thirteen. He went to sea serving first in the battleship
''Queen Elizabeth'' in the Mediterranean, and spent the rest of the war at sea – mostly under it, in submarines. He served as gunnery and torpedo officer of HM Submarine
''Seadog'' in the Far East, 1944–1945, in which capacity he was
mentioned in dispatches
To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...
for distinguished service.
Authorship
Alexander Fullerton's first novel, ''Surface!'' – based on his experiences in ''Seadog'' – was published in 1953. It became an immediate bestseller, with five reprints in six weeks, and sold over 500,000 copies. He has lived solely on his writing since 1967, and is claimed (by his publishers) to be one of the most borrowed authors from British libraries.
Bibliography
The Nicholas Everard Series
Alexander Fullerton's nine-volume ''Mariner of England'' series featuring his hero Nicholas Everard has secured his reputation as one of the finest of modern writers about naval warfare. As well as individual volumes, the series is also published in three omnibus volumes, each comprising three novels.
*''The Blooding of the Guns'' (1976)
*''Sixty Minutes for St George'' (1977)
*''Patrol to the Golden Horn'' (1978)
*''Storm Force to Narvik'' (1979)
*''Last Lift from Crete'' (1980)
*''All the Drowning Seas'' (1981)
*''A Share of Honour'' (1982)
*''The Torch Bearers'' (1983)
*''The Gatecrashers'' (1984)
The SBS Trilogy
*''Special Deliverance'' (1986)
*''Special Dynamic'' (1987)
*''Special Deception'' (1988)
The Rosie Ewing Quartet and Prequel
A series of novels about a female agent of the World War II British Special Operations Executive ("SOE") in Nazi-occupied France. Fullerton's protagonist, Rosie Ewing, may have been inspired by the real-life experiences of decorated SOE agent Odette Sansom Hallowes.
[ Odette Hallowes#In popular culture]
*''Into the Fire'' (1995)
*''Return to the Field'' (1997)
*''In at the Kill'' (1999)
*''Single to Paris'' (2001)
After writing the first four Rosie Ewing novels, Fullerton wrote a prequel in 2006, using the literary conceit that the real-life "Rosie" had contacted him to tell the story of her first mission:
*''Staying Alive'' (2006)
Related novel: Fullerton's 1996 book, "Band of Brothers," about the efforts of a force of British gunboats and torpedo boats to sink a German U-boat supply vessel, has as its protagonist a major character (naval officer Ben Quarry) from the Rosie Ewing quartet.
Other Novels
*''Surface!'' (1953)
*''Bury the Past'' (1954)
*''Old Moke'' (1954)
*''No Man's Mistress'' (1955)
*''A Wren Called Smith'' (1957)
*''The White Men Sang'' (1958) - a fictionalised account of the
Shangani Patrol
The Shangani Patrol (or Wilson's Patrol) was a 34-soldier unit of the British South Africa Company that in 1893 was ambushed and annihilated by more than 3,000 Matabele warriors in pre-Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), during the First Matab ...
, the Rhodesian equivalent of
Custer's last Stand
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nort ...
or the
Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alamo Mission near San Ant ...
*''The Yellow Ford'' (1959)
*''The Waiting Game'' (1961)
*''Mantrap'' (1961)
*''Soldier from the Sea'' (1962)
*''The Thunder and the Flame'' (1964)
*''Lionheart'' (1965)
*''Chief Executive'' (1969)
*''The Publisher'' (1969)
*''Store'' (1971)
*''The Escapists'' (1972)
*''Other Men's Wives'' (1973)
*''Piper's Leave'' (1974)
*''Regenesis'' (1983)
*''The Aphrodite Cargo'' (1985)
*''Look to the Wolves'' (1988) (book 1 of 2 in the Russian Battles series)
*''Johnson's Bird'' (1989)
*''Bloody Sunset'' (1991) (book 2 of 2 in the Russian Battles series)
*''Love for an Enemy'' (1993)
*''Not Thinking of Death'' (1994) (a fictionalised account of the sinking of
HMS Thetis (N25)
HMS ''Thetis'' (N25) was a Group 1 T-class submarine of the Royal Navy which sank during sea trials in Liverpool Bay, England on 1 June 1939. After being salvaged and repaired, the boat was recommissioned as HMS ''Thunderbolt'' in 1940. It se ...
during trials)
*''Band of Brothers'' (1996) (set in the "Rosie Ewing" universe—protagonist Ben Quarry is an important character in Fullerton's "Rosie Ewing" series)
*''Final Dive'' (1998)
*''Wave Cry'' (1999)
*''The Floating Madhouse'' (2000)
*''Flight to Mons'' (2003)
*''Westbound, Warbound'' (2003) (book 1 of 2 in the Andy Holt series)
*''Stark Realities'' (2004)
*''Non-Combatants'' (2005) (book 2 of 2 in the Andy Holt series)
*''Submariner'' (2008)
References
Sources
*Alexander Fullerton, ''Nicholas Everard, Mariner of England: Volume 1''. Little, Brown & Company, 2001. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fullerton, Alexander
1924 births
English writers
2008 deaths
British expatriates in France