Richard Seymour Hall Explained

Richard Seymour Hall (22 July 1925 – 14 November 1997) was a British journalist and historian, writing primarily about Africa.

He was born in Margate, and spent several years of his childhood in Australia. On returning to the UK with his mother after his parents separated, Hall attended Hastings Grammar School. After a short period working as a junior reporter on local newspapers, he enlisted and served as a signaler in the Royal Navy. After WW2, he obtained a place at Oxford University and received an honours degree from Keble College, Oxford. During this time, he married Barbara Hall.

He worked first on Fleet Street for the Daily Mail, and then went to Northern Rhodesia, where he was co-founder and editor of the Central African Mail (also known as the African Mail) with Alexander Scott.^[1]

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Hall remained at the centre of the de-colonisation process in Zambia, with friendships that included Kenneth Kaunda, who became first president of Zambia. Following Zambia's independence in 1964, he became editor of the Times of Zambia a newspaper owned by Tiny Rowland.

In 1967, Hall returned to England as African correspondent of The Observer, including reporting on the Biafran war. He later became editor of the Observer Magazine, and during that time was a proponent of an ultimately unsuccessful fight for greater journalistic independence from its owners. During the early 1980s he worked as a senior columnist for the Financial Times. In 1986, he founded his own financial and political bulletin Africa Analysis.^{[2] [3]}

Hall remained active both as editor of Africa Analysis and as an author until his death in 1997. He married twice, first to Barbara Hall, a successful journalist and author in her own right and a respected crossword compiler and puzzles editor for the Sunday Times. Richard Hall's second marriage was to Carol Cattley, whom he met while working at the Observer. Hall had five sons from his first marriage.

Books

Hall wrote a number of books on Africa politics, history, and biography, for adults and children.

For adults

• Empires of the Monsoon: A History of the Indian Ocean and its Invaders, HarperCollins, 1998.
  • Chinese translation: 季风帝国 印度洋及其入侵者的历史, Gingko (Beijing) Ltd, 2018.
• My Life with Tiny: A Biography of Tiny Rowland, London: Faber and Faber, 1987.
• Lovers on the Nile: The Incredible African Journeys of Sam and Florence Baker, Random House, 1980.
  • Spanish translation, Los Amantes del Nilo
• (with Hugh Peyman) The Great Uhuru Railway: China's Showpiece in Africa, London: Gollancz, 1976.
• Zambia 1890-1964: The Colonial period, 1976.
• Stanley: An Adventurer Explored, Houghton Mifflin, 1975. . According to WorldCat, the book is held in 1312 libraries^[4]
  • Japanese translation by Kiyotaka Yoneda, 栄光と幻想 : 探検家スタンレー伝 / Eikō to gensō,
• The High Price of Principles: Kaunda and the White South, 1969, Holmes & Meier.
• Zambia, Praeger, 1966, 357 pages,

For young people

• Explorers in Africa. Usborne Publishing, 1975,
• Discovery of Africa Hamlyn 1970,
  • Also published in French as Decouverte de l'afrique
• Kaunda, founder of Zambia. Longmans, 1967.

External links

• Richard Seymour Hall website
• Richard Hall archives held at the University of London

Notes and References

1. Web site: Obituaries: Richard Hall: Tough Love For Africa . . November 19, 1997 . January 4, 2018 . Cockcroft. Laurence.
2. Web site: Obituary . The Times . January 4, 2018.
3. [Anthony Sampson]
4. http://www.worldcat.org/wcidentities/lccn-n79-138569 WorldCat identities