Richard Hall was raised in Sydney by his mother, moving through a variety of accommodation and with very little to spare in terms of material possessions. He was educated at St Aloysius College and later at Sydney University. Hall began his working life in radio journalism and moved from there into the print media, including some time with the Bulletin.
In 1968 Hall became private secretary to Gough Whitlam, a position he held for five years. When the Labor Party gained government he worked in the Departments of Aboriginal Affairs and Secondary Industry. In 1973, Hall was one of the founding members of the Australia Council's Literature Board and in 1975, as founding chairman of the Australian Authors' Fund, oversaw the establishment of Public Lending Right. Under appointment by Neville Wran, Premier of NSW, Hall and Donald Horne instigated the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. During the same period he was a member of the NSW State Library Council and was elected president of that body in 1980 for a four-year term.
In addition to this range of civic and public service commitments, Hall was engaged in writing magazine articles, book reviews, speeches, background papers and stage plays. He was 'ghostwriter' for two books (with Mick Young and Jack Hallam) and also wrote a number of biographies and non-fiction works focussing largely on the worlds of politics, crime and espionage. This latter theme was further developed in his two thrillers Costello and Noumea. Hall's success in winning the inaugural James Joyce Foundation Fellowship enabled him to take up a residency at Trinity College, Dublin.
Hall worked with great dedication in service to his community and to the advancement of Australian cultural life. The National Library of Australia holds a collection of his papers (MS 8725). A description of the collection can be found at http://www.nla.gov.au/ms/findaids/8725.html.
