On the strength of his early novels in the 1940s, Gilbert was accounted by E. M. Forster as "a writer of distinction", but he is chiefly remembered as the author of Ratman's Notebooks (1968) which sold over 1 million copies and was twice made into a horror film named Willard (1971 and 2003) in the United States.
Gilbert, occasionally helped by school friends, produced The Broadcaster, a handwritten and illustrated digest of stories, news and essays which he would post to relatives back home.
[3] In Belfast, he worked briefly as a court reporter for the Northern Whig (a witness to magistrates imposing fines on failed suicides; Gilbert in later years volunteered with the Samaritans).
Reid acted as a mentor to Gilbert and depicts an idealised version of their relationship (opening with a holiday encounter in the seaside town of Ballycastle) in his novel Brian Westby (1944).
It is based on his volunteer wartime experiences with the 3rd (Ulster) Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery in France, including the evacuation at Dunkirk (Gilbert was awarded the Military Medal for burning a bridge in the face of an enemy advance).
[6] Monkeyface told the story of an ape-man missing link who is brought from the jungles of South America to the U.K. and learns to speak English, but struggles with adapting to modern human society.
While in service during World War II, Gilbert corresponded with his fiancé Kathleen Stevenson, a distant relative, who had joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF).
The first film adaptation, directed by Daniel Mann and starring Bruce Davison, Ernest Borgnine, Sondra Locke and Elsa Lanchester, was released in 1971, opening to good reviews and high box office returns.
[12] Edited and compiled by the playwright and comedian Andrew Doyle, it draws on manuscripts in the possession of the author's son, Tom Gilbert, and of Queen's University, Belfast.
Like Gilbert, "Frank Downton" is a son attempting to work with his father in a family business that, in many respects, is a stolid representation of the city's dissolving Victorian and Unionist order.
[4] The Stephen Gilbert Collection at Queens University, Belfast includes correspondence with authors Walter de la Mare, George Buchanan, Forrest Reid and E. M. Forster.