Title

Halls, Geraldine.

Author

Butler, Roger.

Publication date

23 November 2023

Type

Biography

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Geraldine Jay had a privileged childhood being educated at Girton College, Adelaide (now Pembroke) and the University of Adelaide, where she graduated in 1941. Her first novel, The Knife is Feminine, was published in 1943. Jay worked as a shorthand stenographer from the 1930s in Melbourne, Sydney and after the war, London. After the war she lived in London.

She was working as a stenographer with the Supreme Court in Papua New Guinea (from June 1949- February 1950) when she met Albert James Hall (1904-1982). She would accompany him on his subsequent postings incorporating aspects of their exotic placements into her many novels.

In 1950 Halls joined the Paris based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and in 1951-53 was Head of Mission for the UNESCO Project for the Development of Radio Education in Pakistan. This was followed by similar positions in Thailand (from 16 January 1954), Lebanon, and India (29 February 1958 - 29 February 1960). Time was also spent in France.

Halls retired in 1960 and married Geraldine in 1962. They setup home in The Old Grammar School House, Church Lane a heritage listed 1620 residence in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England. From there they sold Japanese prints, Chinese porcelain, and oriental art to private buyers.

In 1971 they returned to live permanently in Adelaide, purchasing a property at 21 Commercial Road, in the prestigious inner suburb of Hyde Park, in Adelaide. They retained their English property and indicated that they would return occasionally. In the meantime, they organised a series of selling exhibitions of their collection of Japanese prints. Adelaide April 1971, Sydney April 1971, Macquarie Galleries, Canberra May 1971. These prints had been collected over their years of travel but they had never been to Japan. Halls was studying the Japanese language in preparation to their first trip to Japan in 1971. Geraldine continued to write and some of her earlier works were republished.

A.J. Halls died in 1982. Geraldine continued to organise selling exhibitions from their print collection and in 1984 Geraldine gave a collection of Tsuba (Japanese sword guards) and other Japanese decorative arts to the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Geraldine Jay died in Adelaide on 27 October 1996.

Roger Butler, 23 November 2023