Richard Hull was born Richard Henry Sampson in London on 6 September 1896 to Nina Hull and S.A. Sampson, and attended Rugby School, Warwickshire. When the First World War broke out, his uncle helped him secure a commission in the Queen Victoria's Rifles. At the end of the war, after three years in France, he returned to England and worked as an accountant. His first book The Murder of My Aunt, written under the pseudonym Richard Hull, was published in 1934. The novel, set in Dysserth, Welshpool, is known for its humour, narrative charm and unexpected twists. Hull moved into full-time writing in 1934 and wrote a further fourteen novels over the span of his career. During the Second World War, he became an auditor with the Admiralty in London, a position he retained for eighteen years until he retired in 1958. While he stopped writing detective fiction after 1953, Hull continued to take an interest in the affairs for the Detection Club, assisting Agatha Christie with her duties as President. He died in 1973.