Byline: Pamela Bone

MOST PEOPLE know someone like this: someone who talks too fast and too much, nearly always about herself; who knows everything about almost any subject; who lacks the judgment to know when people are sick of listening to her; who, if you want to be listened to, forces you to forget your manners and speak over her. When I remember such people, they are more often women - but then perhaps I am conditioned to be less tolerant of fast-talking know-alls who are women (powerful men, used to being listened to, speak slowly; just listen to the Pope). Such people are usually intelligent, narcissistic and have an insatiable desire for attention (I can't work out whether this is because they didn't get enough attention as a child or got so much they became addicted to it); they seem to be supremely self-confident and are supremely irritating, but most of all they are sad. Helen Darville, once Demidenko, is such a person. I knew this, from conversations I have had with other people who know her, before I read in Natalie Jane Prior's The Demidenko Diary of how she once had to hide in the lavatory to escape Helen Darville's voice. The Demidenko Diary is, I think, a valuable book, but not because it provides us with some more gossip about Helen Darville. It is a thoughtful, sympathetic - and above all, honest - attempt to understand why Helen Darville wrote as she did and...