Helen Darville

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Helen Darville (born 24 January 1972) is an Australian journalist and writer. In 1993, Darville won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award for her book The Hand that Signed the Paper. Darville had written the novel under the pseudonym Helen Demidenko while she was studying English Literature at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. The award was for first novels by unpublished Australian writers under 35.

Darville's book described the experiences of Ukrainian brothers who survive Stalinism only to become members of the Nazi Einsatzgruppen death squads and ultimately Australian citizens. Her choice to concentrate on the experience of Ukrainian perpetrators to the exclusion of Jewish victims led to accusations of anti-Semitism.

1 False identity
2 Later work
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] False identity

Darville, using the name Demidenko, pretended to be of Ukrainian descent while writing and researching the book. This deceived her new literary associates completely, although the university and her friends knew what she was doing. About three months after winning the Miles Franklin Award (the most prestigious literary award in Australia), her true identity was revealed. This created a furore in the Australian press, with many people comparing it to the Ern Malley Affair, a noted Australian literary hoax. The novel was widely acclaimed and won various awards, including the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal in addition to the awards above.

After the Miles Franklin, a media furore ensued when it was revealed that the Demidenko identity was false. There were also allegations that she plagiarised from numerous books, including The Black Deeds of the Kremlin: a White Book, Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory and Elizabeth Bowen's The Demon Lover.

Critics labelled the novel a hoax and the judges who had granted the awards were ridiculed. The issue continues to inspire a lively debate on identity politics and Australia's long history of identity 'hoaxes' by both writers and artists.

[edit] Later work

In 1995 Australian culture journal Meanjin published a short story, Pieces of the Puzzle, also by Demidenko although the journal also mentioned that Demidenko had "taken back" her previous name as Darville. She now claimed that she had met Ukrainian witnesses and based the story on them, an admission which subsequently resulted in correspondence from the Simon Wiesenthal Center demanding she name these possible war criminals.

Darville wrote occasional journalism for the Brisbane daily, the Courier-Mail, before being fired for plagiarism (see Evil Overlord List).^[1]. She also continued to write freelance features for other News Corporation newspapers and magazines, and occasionally the Fairfax press.

In 2000 she was again accused of anti-Semitism after an interview in Australian Style magazine with historian and Holocaust denier David Irving, during his failed libel trial in London. She has since diffused some antagonism with the Jewish community when she published a post-September 11th article in the Sydney Morning Herald that was seen as pro-American and pro-Israel.

After working as a secondary teacher for several years in Australia, the UK and Italy, she returned to the University of Queensland in 2002 to study law. After graduating with a first class honours degree in law in 2005, she commenced working as Associate ('Judge's Clerk' in the US) to a Queensland Supreme Court Justice.

She has since married, and contributes regularly under the name 'skepticlawyer' to the libertarian group blog Catallaxy files. In recent times, she has also appeared on the SBS program Insight and as a guest of Melbourne University's Publishing and Communications Program. She has a strong involvement with the Skeptics, and has written for both their in-house magazine and Quadrant Magazine, a conservative intellectual journal.

[edit] Notes

^ David Greason, "The Review - TZADIK," Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, [1] (accessed September 26, 2006). See also The Australian, "Editor dumps Darville," Ed: 1, Pg. 3, 5th February 1997.