Ben Hall the Bushranger

Ben Hall the Bushranger is a 1947 Australian historical novel by Frank Clune about the bushranger Ben Hall. It tried to focus on Hall's motivations.

He wrote this and Dark Outlaw as historical novels while researching his large non fiction book Wild Colonial Boys.

Reception
The West Australian said "the romance and adventure... make an attractive narrative."

Smith's Weekly said Clune "can give you the scenes, he can describe their faces, their huts, their names and tneir clothes. He can give a detailed and very stirring account of their actions. But when it comes to explaining their insides and what makes them tick, he is lost; they all "revert to type"; and that is the difference between the Australian of Francis Ratcliffe and the Australian of Frank Clune's various books on travels through Australia."

The Sunday Times said it was "not a very deep character analy-sis - about half-way between actions and basic motives. And in places the story lumbers and the intelligence of the reader is under-estimated by pointing out tacticns that are obvious by the dialogue. Nevertheless, the book is well worth a place on anybody's shelf, for its historical as well as its entertainment value."

ABC Weekly declared "Frank Clune has used both hands to apply his colours, and if at times the story degenerates into something of the old penny-dreadful it is alwavs interesting."