Author Helen Darville, also known as Helen Dale, was born in Brisbane on 24 January 1971. She enrolled at the University of Queensland in 1989 and earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1992, followed by Honours in 1994. During this time Darville adopted the surname Demidenko and published The hand that signed the paper (1994) under this name. The book won the Miles Franklin Award in 1995 and became the subject of a literary controversy when Darville's ancestry was revealed to be English rather than Irish-Ukrainian, as she had claimed. It was reissued in 1995 under her birth name. In 2005, she graduated from the University of Queensland with a degree in Law and went on to hold positions as a judge's associate and advisor to Senator David Leyonhjelm.