Hal Gibson Pateshall Colebatch (7 October 1945 – 10 September 2019) was a West Australian author, historian, poet, lecturer, journalist, editor, and lawyer. Biography Colebatch was the son and biographer of Australian politician Sir Hal Colebatch (1872 – 1953). His mother Marion, Lady Colebatch, was the daughter of long-time Fremantle mayor and parliamentarian Sir Frank Gibson, and had served as an Australian Army nursing sister. He graduated BA Hons and MA in History/Politics and PhD in Political Science from the University of Western Australia. He later attained degrees in law and jurisprudence. Colebatch nominated as a candidate in the 1977 and 1993 state elections for the seat of Perth as the Liberal candidate, and although he was not elected to the Legislative Assembly on either occasion, on the second attempt he came within 0.12% of winning the seat from the Australian Labor Party, which had held it since 1968. Hal G. P. Colebatch is not to be confused with author Dr Hal K. Colebatch who was born in 1944 and has taught political science at several universities. Writing Colebatch's work includes eight volumes of poetry (starting with Spectators on the Shore in 1975), and a series of 18 science-fiction stories published in the US in the Larry Niven series The Man-Kzin Wars. Man-Kzin Wars XII, containing three more stories by Colebatch (two written in collaboration with M. J. Harrington) was published in February 2009. He also published works of political, social, legal and economic commentary. He was described in Penguin's "A New Literary History of Australia" published in 1988, as having had "a quiet but steady career" in Australian poetry at that time. He was a regular contributor to publications including Quadrant and his 1999 book Blair's Britain was chosen in The Spectator (London) as a Book of the Year. He also contributed to The American Spectator Online, wrote op-ed articles for The Australian and occasional pieces for other publications including The Australian Financial Review, IPA Review The Salisbury Review and The New Criterion. He also wrote regular book-reviews and other features for The West Australian and The Record in Perth. His Return of the Heroes is a study of heroic fantasy including The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Harry Potter, and he contributed several articles to the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopaedia; Scholarship and Critical Assessment. He wrote biographies of Sir Victor Garland and the late Sir