A combination of expertise on Machiavelli, Michelangelo, the Renaissance, Japanese
history and contemporary political life, and on Rome is not a commonplace feature
among journalists even of the old school of scholarly craftsmen in our trade: yet all
that was part of the near-unique range of polymathic qualities of George Bull, OBE,
who has died aged 71.
The word 'remarkable' has come to be used freely in obituaries, perhaps almost a
cliché. In George Bull's case it is more than justified. He was an example of the
exceptional journalist – never satisfied with the search for information and
explanation in any one subject, constantly reaching out for fields as yet unconquered
by his restless, inquiring mind; no doubt spreading his talents far too widely as he was
forever irresistibly drawn in search of the Holy Grail.
No doubt because of his Catholic upbringing he was early on attracted to Italian
culture and art and developed a love of Renaissance Italy. He translated for Penguin
books Vasari, Cellini, Castiglione, Aretino and Machiavelli. His book The Prince is a
classic of its kind and remains in print having sold over a million copies.
His biography of Michelangelo, first published in 1995, is a notable contribution to
the volumes written about that extraordinary genius of the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet
throughout all this he remained the working journalist, brilliant interviewer, excellent
reporter and a distinctive editor.
George Bull was born of working class parents in the East End of London and was
very young when his father died. His mother, Bridget, came from an Irish immigrant
family and was the principal support for the family. They were devout Catholics and
George was educated by the Society of Jesus, and institution for which he retained a
life-long regard since it was the Society that took him to Wimbledon College and
from there to Brasenose College, Oxford. Even at Wimbledon he was already
showing signs of the budding journalist when he started and edited a school magazine
called The Distributist inspired by George's devotion to the ideas and writings of G K
Chesterton. After Oxford he was recruited to the Financial Times by that paper's great
talent-spotting editor Sir Gordon Newton – first as a reporter and then, in succession,
Foreign News Editor between 1956 and 1959. He then switched to the London Bureau
of McGraw-Hill World News as News Editor until 1960 when he joined The Director
which under his and Eric Foster's control effectively became the British equivalent of
Fortune Magazine albeit without the marketing thrust of its American counterpart.
George Bull was successively Editor and Editor-in-Chief of The Director from 1960
till 1984. Two years after leaving The Director George took on a job with a completely
different perspective – Director of the Anglo Japanese Economic Institute, an
organisation whose title conceals more than it reveals since it is one of the principal
Anglo-Japanese bodies in the UK, linking Tokyo with the widest range of British
political, industrial and cultural activities. And, as the organiser-in-chief of this rather
special, if largely unpublicised, institution George Bull became a kind of de facto
Anglo-Japanese Ambassador at large in London. For which, in 1999, he was awarded
by the Emperor of Japan the highly prestigious Order of the Sacred Treasure (Gold
Rays with Neck Ribbon) of Japan. Just to add a typical element of Bull
ecumenicalism to all this he was also awarded, in the same year, the Knight
Commander of the Order of St. Gregory.
There were no boundaries to George Bull's activities: he launched and ran a series of
monthly and quarterly journals dealing with Japanese affairs: an independent journal
on Central Banking and another journal to analyse the psychological aspects of
international conflict, International Minds. He was a Director and Trustee of The
Tablet and The Universe; Governor of Westminster Choir School and St Thomas
More School and of St. Mary's College, Strawberry Hill 1976-87. Member of the UK
Committee, European Cultural Foundation since 1987 and co-founder and Director of
the Institute for Public Enterprise Studies started in 1996. He was appointed OBE in
1990.
And, even as he struggled with uneasy health his astonishing energies were never at
rest: he was in the process of writing a new study of Dante when he was struck down
with heart failure. Like all his work it would have contained that essential essence of
George – dedication, intellectual candour, enormous spiritual resource and a
wonderful gentle humanity.
George Bull leaves a widow, Doreen 'Dido' Bull, two sons and two daughers.
George Bull, OBE; journalist, writer, translator, consultant; born London, August 23,
1929 – died London, April 6 2001.