Oslo Intrigue : The Curious Case of Helen Astrup

In 1953, a remarkable memoir appeared recounting the experiences of Englishwoman Helen Astrup during the German occupation of Norway (1940–1945), including her participation in resistance networks. The book, circulated under titles including Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1953) and Oslo Intrigue: A Woman’s Memoir of the Norwegian Resistance (1954), was purportedly co-written with the British journalist, war veteran and author B. L. Jacot. Astrup’s sensational memoir (in English and in translation) has subsequently been cited in several high-profile works on the history of the Norwegian occupation and Holocaust. A closer look at Jacot’s career, however, reveals a writer who was at home with both fiction and fact, while the identity of Astrup herself remains difficult to establish. Moreover, the book has, over the decades, been marketed both as historical document and as popular novel. Viewed from the perspective of life writing studies, this text raises a host of compelling issues relating to authorship. Did Jacot act to amplify Astrup’s voice, appropriate it, or even fabricate it, in whole or in part? This article will offer an investigation into this compelling case study and into the unexpected mysteries it generates, revealing troubling discursive ambiguities even in the gravest of historical contexts.