Norma Hall

Norma Hall grew up in Sydney and married economist Alan Hall there, before moving to Canberra via London. Two of their children were born in Canberra and the third in Colombo, where Alan was a consultant for the Colombo Plan.

During her 30 years in Canberra, Norma indulged her passion for native plants and animals and worked part time as a typist for The Canberra Times. She also wrote satirical columns for the same paper. Norma and Alan returned to Sydney in 1985, to a house on the waterfront at Coogee. Here Norma wrote seriously, became very involved in WIRES, and familiarised herself with many of the locations featured in Leaves from My Diary. After a long period of detioriating health, she died in January, 2000.