Bullough was born in 1977 and grew up on a sheep farm in Mid Wales.[1] [3] He studied History at Oxford University.[4]
After leaving university, Bullough first acted in a friend's Edinburgh Fringe play.[5] In 1999, he bought the Lonely Planet Guide to Russia, took a Russian language course, and got hired by a Saint Petersburg English language magazine.[1] [5] After a year, Bullough was employed by The Times of Central Asia, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.[5]
Bullough later worked as a journalist for Reuters.[1] He also covered the war in Chechnya.
He is best known for his books Let Our Fame Be Great,[6][7][8] nominated for the Orwell Prize,[9] (set in the Caucasus mountains) and The Last Man in Russia, nominated for the Dolman Prize and won the Overseas Press Club's Cornelius Ryan Award. Later books focused on financial crime, Moneyland: Why Thieves And Crooks Now Rule The World And How To Take It Back,[10] Butler to the World: How Britain Helps the World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, and Get Away with Anything.[11][12]
His work has appeared at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting,[13] and in GQ,[14] Granta,[15] and The Guardian.[16][17][18]
He returned to Britain in 2006.[1]