The Danish writer Helle Helle was born as Helle Olsen in Nakskov on the island of Lolland and she grew up in Rødby. Her name has changed several times over the years due to several divorces within the family. When she was twenty years old she took her mother's surname, thinking it would be a suitable pen name, something she later regretted. "I've had to explain it millions of times," she says.