Richard Victor Hall (9 October 1937 – 22 March 2003) was an Australian writer. Hall attended St Aloysius' College and then studied at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. He worked as a journalist and with

Freedom from Hunger Freedom from Hunger (established in 1946, and now part of the Grameen Foundation Grameen Foundation, founded as Grameen Foundation USA, also known as "GFUSA", is a global 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, that uses di ...

before becoming a secretary to Labor Party leader

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from December 1972 to November 1975. To date the longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was notable for being ...

. Following the Labor Party's victory at the 1972 federal election, he became an advisor in Aboriginal Affairs and then in Secondary Industry. In 1973, he was a founding member of the Literature Board of the

Australia Council Creative Australia, formerly known as the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announ ...

. While serving on the Board, he was involved in the

Public Lending Right A public lending right (PLR) is a program intended to either compensate authors for the potential loss of sales from their works being available in public libraries or as a governmental support of the arts, through support of works available in pu ...

scheme. In 1976,

Neville Wran Neville Kenneth Wran, (11 October 1926 – 20 April 2014) was an Australian politician who was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 to 1986. He was the national president of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1980 to 1986 and chairman o ...

, the

Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster system, Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales actin ...

, appointed Hall to the Cultural Affairs Advisory Body, where Hall and

Donald Horne Donald Richmond Horne (26 December 1921 – 8 September 2005) was an Australian journalist, writer, social critic, and academic who became one of Australia's best known public intellectuals, from the 1960s until his death. Horne was a proli ...

founded the

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, th ...

. He also served on the New South Wales State Library Council, and was president from 1980 to 1984. Hall also ghost-wrote two books, for Labor politicians Jack Hallam and

Mick Young Michael Jerome Young (9 October 1936 − 8 April 1996) was an Australian politician. He rose through the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to become its National Secretary, before serving as a Labor member of the House of Representatives from the ...

, and also wrote biographies, political non-fiction, and two crime thrillers. In 1994, he won the first James Joyce Foundation Fellowship and consequently spent time at

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

. In his later years, he also worked as an advisor for

Wayne Swan Wayne Maxwell Swan (born 30 June 1954) is an Australian politician serving as the 25th and current Australian Labor Party National Executive#National Presidents, National President of the Labor Party since 2018, previously serving as the 14th de ...

. Hall died after a long illness in 2003.

Bibliography

Books written by Richard Hall

* ''O'Leary: A Two Act Play'', 1962 * ''The Makers and the Breakers: The Governor-General and the Senate Vs the Constitution'', Sydney and Auckland, Wellington Lane Press, 1976. Joint author: John Iremonger. * ''The Real John Kerr: His Brilliant Career'', Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1978 * ''The Secret State: Australia's Spy Industry'', Sydney: Cassell, 1978 * ''Greed'', Sydney: Pan Books, 1981 * ''Costello'', Sydney: Collins , 1989 * ''Noumea'', North Ryde: Angus and Robertson, 1990 * ''The Rhodes Scholar Spy'', Sydney: Random House, 1991 * ''Tiger General: The Killing of Victor Chang'', Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, 1995

Books edited by Richard Hall

* ''Banjo Paterson: His Poetry and Prose'', St Leonards: Allen and Unwin, 1993 * ''Backroom Briefings: John Curtin's War'', Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1997. Joint editor: Clem Lloyd. * ''Sydney : An Oxford Anthology'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2000

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Dick 1937 births 2003 deaths Australian writers