Helen Darville

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Helen Dale, formerly Helen Darville (born 24 January 1972) is an Australian columnist and writer. In 1993, Darville was awarded The Australian/Vogel Literary Award for her book The Hand That Signed the Paper. Darville wrote the novel under the pseudonym Helen Demidenko while studying English literature at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.

1 The Hand That Signed the Paper
2 Later work
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] The Hand That Signed the Paper

Presenting as autobiography, The Hand that Signed the Paper tells the story of Demidenko's father and uncle, peasants in the Ukraine who witnessed the death of their family and the destruction of their homes under Stalinism. Perceiving Jewish people as their persecutors, they become members of Nazi Einsatzgruppen death squads, and after the war ultimately migrate to Australia. Darville (as Demidenko) was accused of anti-semitism by focussing on Ukrainian perpetrators of war crimes to the exclusion of Jewish victims.

The book was widely condemned as anti-Semitic, but Darville, who claimed she was Ukranian and made regular appearances in Ukranian costume, insisted that Jews had killed her grandparents.

While the university and Darville's friends were aware that she had assumed the identity of Helen Demidenko, the Australian public, as well as literary judges, were completely deceived. Darville's identity as the true author was revealed when she won the Miles Franklin Award (the most prestigious literary award in Australia). This created a furore in the Australian media, with many comparing it to the Ern Malley Affair, a noted Australian literary hoax. Some critics also labelled the novel a hoax, and the judges who granted the award were ridiculed. In addition, Darville was accused of plagiarising various other 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. However, the novel also won the 1995 ALS Gold Medal by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature.

[edit] Later work

In 1995, the 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 that she identify these possible war criminals.

Darville was a columnist with the Brisbane daily newspaper, The Courier-Mail, before being dismissed for plagiarising the 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 later diffused some antagonism with the Jewish community after she published a post-September 11 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 work as a judge's associate ("judge's clerk" in the U.S.) for Peter Dutney, a justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland. Darville claims to have worked as a graphic designer and a latin translater.

Darville then married, and now contributes regularly to the libertarian group blog Catallaxy files under the name 'skepticlawyer'. 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 Australian Skeptics, and has written for both their in-house magazine and Quadrant Magazine, a conservative journal. Recently Darville was included as an entry in Ben Peek's Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth, a novel exploring the nature of truth in literature.^[2]

[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.
^ Ben Peek, Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth, Wheatland Press, USA, pages 19-23, 2006.