Richard Neville (born 1941) is an Australian author and "futurist", who came to fame as a co-editor of the counterculture magazine Oz in Australia and the UK in the 1960s and early 1970s. He was involved with the Sydney Push libertarians at the University of New South Wales in the early 1960s during the production of the Sydney-based Oz Magazine..

Oz

In late 1963 or early 1964 Neville, then editor of the University of NSW student magazine Tharunka, met Richard Walsh, editor of its Sydney University counterpart Honi Soit, as well as artist Martin Sharp. Neville and Walsh wanted to publish their own "magazine of dissent" and asked Sharp to become a contributor. The magazine was dubbed Oz.

Sydney Oz hit the streets on April Fool's Day, 1963. Its irreverent attitude was very much in the tradition of the student newspapers, but its growing public profile quickly made it a target for "the Establishment", and it soon became a prominent casualty of the so-called "Censorship Wars".

During the life of Australian Oz Sharp, Neville and Walsh were twice charged with printing an obscene publication. The first trial was relatively minor, and should have been a non-event, but they were poorly advised and pleaded guilty, which resulted in their convictions being recorded. As a result when they were charged with obscenity a second time, their previous convictions meant that the new charges were considerably more serious.

The charges centred on two items in the early issues of Oz -- one was Sharp's ribald poem "The Word Flashed Around The Arms", which satirised the contemporary habit of youths gatecrashing parties; the other offending item was the famous photo (used on the cover of Oz #6) which depicted Neville and two friends pretending to urinate into a Tom Bass sculptural wall fountain, set into the wall of the new P&O office in Sydney, which had recently been opened by Prime Minister Robert Menzies.

Sharp, Neville and Walsh were tried, found guilty and given prison sentences. Their convictions caused a public outcry and they were subsequently acquitted on appeal, but the so-called "Oz Three" realised that there was little future battling such strong opposition.

London Oz

In late 1966 Neville and Sharp moved to the UK and in early 1967, with fellow Australian Jim Anderson, they founded the London Oz. Most notable for the, then, longest obscenity trial in UK history regarding the publication of the Schoolkids OZ (May 1970) issue leading to the prosecution of Neville, Anderson and Felix Dennis, later overturned on appeal. London Oz ended in November 1973.

After-life

For the next few years he roamed the world reporting on youth cultures, social inventions and the shape of the future. He broadcast regularly on ABC radio and wrote for an array of newspapers and magazines. In New York in 1977, Richard was commissioned to write a book about a serial killer incarcerated in Delhi, who preyed upon Western backpackers. The resulting biography of Charles Sobhraj, (co-authored by Julie Clarke) was a global best-seller. It inspired several TV docu-dramas and its charismatic subject, after a spell of freedom, is back in jail in Katmandu, attracting suitors and appealing his murder convictions.

In the 80’s, Richard returned to Australia and joined Channel 9’s popular Mid-Day Show, where he reported on popular culture, wild ideas and the quest for sustainability. Richard’s segments often aroused controversy, as when he inhaled on camera (to test the impact of marijuana on driving). These segments evolved into the Channel Ten series, Extra Dimensions, looking at sustainability and human potential.

In the 90’s, in a variety of media, Richard explored the new role for business in the 21st Century. This led to keynote addresses at national conferences, and the essay collection, Out of My Mind (Penguin). He also published his Sixties memoir, Hippie Hippie Shake, as well as co-launching the Australian Futures Foundation in order to bring futures thinking into the mainstream.

Current associations

Richard is now a principal at Sydney’s Neville Freeman agency.

Portrayals

In the television film The Trials of Oz (1991), Neville was played by Hugh Grant.

The Irish actor Cillian Murphy is currently filming Hippie Hippie Shake, in which he plays Neville. Produced by Working Title, the film is directed by Beeban Kidron, and co-stars Sienna Miller and Emma Booth. According to IMDB.com, it is due for release in the UK on 5th February 2010.

Books

• Play Power. London: Cape, 1970. No ISBN

• The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj Richard Neville and Julie Clarke. Sydney: Pan Books, 1980 ISBN 033027144X

• Playing Around. Milsons Point, NSW: Arrow Books, 1991. ISBN 0091825474

• Hippie, Hippie, Shake: The Dreams, the Trips, the Trials, the Love-ins, the Screw ups -- the Sixties. Port Melbourne: William Heinemann Australia, 1995. ISBN 0855615230

• Out of My Mind: From Flower Power to the Third Millennium -- the Seventies, the Eighties and the Nineties. Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin, 1996. ISBN 0140262709

• Footprints of the Future: Handbook for the Third Millennium. North Sydney, NSW: Richmond, 2002. ISBN 192068803X

• Amerika Psycho: Behind Uncle Sam’s Mask of Sanity. Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2003. ISBN 1876175621

• Out of my mind