We were deeply saddened to hear of the recent passing of David Gullen, a long-time member of the UK SFFH community. Many of our committee and members knew David and mourn his loss. I met him only once and I was struck by his kindness, his calm and gentle energy. He felt like someone safe. Our community feels poorer without him.
David Gullen’s latest novel, The Girl from a Thousand Fathoms, is available in print and ebook. Other recent work includes Third Instar from Eibonvale Press, and Once Upon a Parsec:The Book of Alien Fairy Tales, from Newcon Press. He has sold over 40 short stories to various magazines, anthologies and podcasts. His short story, Warm Gun, won the BFS Short Story Competition in 2016, with other work short-listed for the James White Award and placed in the Aeon Award. He is a past judge for the Arthur C. Clarke and James White Awards, and served as Chair of the Milford SF Conference.
David was born in Africa and baptised by King Neptune He lived in England most of his life and told stories for as long as he could remember. Until his death, he lived behind several tree ferns in South London with the fantasy writer Gaie Sebold.
Some of our members and friends have graciously allowed me to share their thoughts and memories of him here, and I thank them for that kindness. Our thoughts are with his loved ones.
I first met Dave around 1997 at the London-based T Party Writers’ Group. The group’s first anthology, Gravity’s Angels, which I co-edited, was published the following year and at that point, Dave had made his first story sales and had completed his first novel. He had two published: Shopocalypse (2013) and The Girl from a Thousand Fathoms (2025), two novellas, Third Instar (2019) and The Blackheart Blades (2023), and a collection, Open Waters (2015). His story “Warm Gun” won the British Fantasy Society Short Story Competition in 2016.
In 2014 Dave and I edited the anthology Mind Seed, which was published in memory of a fellow T Party member, Denni Schnapp, who passed away in 2014. It was launched at the 2014 London Worldcon. The anthology was Dave’s idea and I joined forces with him as a previous anthology editor. He edited a further anthology, Once Upon a Parsec; The Book of Alien Fairy Tales (2019).
I last met Dave when he and his wife Gaie Sebold (they met at the T Party Writers’ Group) made an appearance for a day at the 2023 Fantasycon in Birmingham for the launch of an anthology he was in. Dave was one of the good guys: warm, friendly, endlessly supportive of fellow writers and the community, and a very talented writer. He bore his eventually terminal illness with grace and courage. He is survived by Gaie and his three children from his first marriage and he will be sorely missed.
Gary Couzens
I knew Dave many years before I got into the writing scene, indeed, decades before I started writing fiction. We were involved in the same roleplaying group where I was often the adventure writer. We frequently spoke about writing during the sessions, and his gentle encouragement was instrumental in my eventually attempting fiction.
He never stopped encouraging and supporting my writing.
My favourite memory of Dave is when he won the Evil Laugh competition at Archipelacon in 2015 while getting the whole bar to chant “Ia Ia Cthulhu Fhtagn.” I have a video of it – it raises a smile, and a tear.
His sense of humor has been much commented upon and, one day I’ll get around to doing that “Zombies on a Zeppelin, Vampires on a Velocipede” anthology in his honour because we sadly won’t be getting something from him for the one I’m working on now.
He’s been a good friend to me for decades, he was gentle and generous, warm and humorous and I will miss him so much.
Raise a wee dram in his honour.
Pete Sutton
I first met David at an Eastercon, over ten years ago. Around the same time that Luna Press was taking its first steps, I had also become the managing editor of the SfiFi Fantasy Network, an online site of everything SFFH. The site launched in March 2015, and I was telling David about it at a con-bar. I was hoping that he would consider writing something for us — and he did! He was so enthusiastic about the idea that a few weeks later I received an informative and captivating piece on “Vampires: The Myth That Refuses to Die”. The post went down a storm! As I am sitting here, writing this, I have the article open on my desktop, with David’s picture at the bottom. He’s in full sunshine, head tilted, resting on his open hand. And he’s smiling. His presence in our community, his contribution to the craft and to the genre will not be forgotten.
Francesca
Memories of David Gullen by Allen Ashley
It is such sad news that writer and editor David Gullen passed away in mid-August after a long battle against prostate cancer. I had known Dave since publishing his story “Fade” in my anthology “Catastrophia” (PS Publishing, 2010). “Fade” was the first piece that I accepted and therefore became the story that set the bar for everything else; which was a pleasant surprise from a writer who was new to me at that stage. Over the years we became friends. Dave was quite an imposing figure with his flowing mane of hair like a retired rock star who’s just stepped off his Harley but, as so often is the case, was a warm, likeable, down to earth guy once you got chatting. In 2016, I selected his story “Warm Gun” as BFS Short Story Competition winner. In 2019, he was editing the intriguing anthology “Once Upon A Parsec” for NewCon Press and took my story “Myths of Sisyphus”. We continued to meet up occasionally at events and his long-term partner Gaie Sebold also attended my SFF group Clockhouse London Writers for a while.
In November 2023, I was putting together the Zoom launch for my novelette “Journey to the Centre of the Onion”, which was part of the Eibonvale Press chapbook range. I wanted a proper online celebration so, as guest readers, I chose three notable contributors to that series – Julie Travis, Kristine Ong Muslim and David Gullen. David’s novella “Third Instar” is a fantastic fantasy story and my absolute favourite of all Eibonvale chapbooks. By this stage, Dave was already undergoing regular day-patient hospital treatment. So, although my heart wanted him at the launch event, my head knew I was asking a lot, maybe too much. But he turned up in good form and read from “Third Instar” and everything went nicely to plan. In an email the next day he revealed to me that he had returned home from an MRI scan just ten minutes before he logged on to take part. “A quick cup of tea and a banana and I was good to go!”
For me, that sums up what is great about our genre: it’s the people and the friendships that we make and sustain and the support we offer each other, even at great personal inconvenience. David Gullen was one of the nicest guys in the genre. His passing is not unexpected but still hard to process. We will miss you, Dave, and our circle is sadly so much smaller today. My thoughts are with his family and friends, especially his partner Gaie Sebold.
– Allen Ashley
Knowing Dave has been a great pleasure; he was, as Gaie is, a delightfully warm and clever person. Stepping into their orbit has always been like walking into a well-loved garden. Dave saw the beauty in the world, even when there were great sorrows, and had a knack for helping you to feel it too. He was a terrific writer of fiction, but also a poet, with a thoughtful, authentic voice. I had the honour, at a recent BristolCon, of sitting on a sofa with him while he composed a poem, sharing it with me even in its unfinished state, and allowing me to feel safe, loved and at peace when I was exhausted and in pain, although he was struggling with far worse. I will miss him. I do miss him. But through the tears, I am remembering his smile, and his courage. I know that he wouldn’t tell us not to cry, but wouldn’t let us stop looking for the joy, either. Goodbye, old friend. I will remember, and be joyful.
Roz Clarke
I first met Dave when he and Gaie came to read at the Bristolcon Fringe, where he read (and acted) a very funny story about the Infinite Monkeys and their Infinite Typewriters. He was a warm, funny man and I took to him straight away. Over the last decade or so it has been an absolute pleasure to call him my friend. Even when things were difficult he always had a smile, or some gentle advice. He was someone you could be quiet with. He was a skilled leatherworker, a passionate gardener, and a great writer. The last time I saw him we just sat on the bench by the pond and watched the dragonflies whizz up and down in companionable silence. It was a perfect moment and I wish we could have had more of them.
Joanne Hall
Dave Gullen was so wonderfully supportive of folks in the Fantasy writing community, new and old. To him, genre was seriously fun. I think my most precious memory of Dave will be the time he spontaneously organized the Pirate Fringe at World Fantasycon 2013 in Brighton. While the formal, professional atmosphere went on around us, I remember Dave, bedecked in a pirate hat, insisting that the evening’s items began with a hearty “arrr!” The supportive spirit of that night owed much to Dave. He always made you feel welcome, never lesser, and was a warm, encouraging presence – a genial giant, who has left the world better for his having been in it.
My thoughts are with his lovely partner, Gaie Sebold, with whom he was amongst my most supportive con parents when I started coming to Fantasycon.
Ruth EJ Booth
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