Helga Griffin was born in Turkey of Austrian and German parents. In Iran at the outbreak of World War II, her engineer father was transported, with the family, to Australia as enemy aliens. Released in 1946, they settled in Melbourne. With qualifications in history and anthropology, Helga taught cultural studies and history and was a long-term contributor to the Australian Dictionary of Biography. She has published academic essays and reviews and, with Anthony Regan, co-edited the comprehensive study, Bougainville Before the Conflict (Pandanus, 2005).

Author's Pandanus publications

• Bougainville before the Conflict
• Sing me that lovely song again...