Cambridge lecturer shamed as rogue reviewer revealed

Stephanie Palmer, a senior Law lecturer at Girton College, has been discovered responsible for a campaign of online attacks on her husband's academic rivals. She wrote scathing reviews of other historians' texts under the usernames "Orlando-Birkbeck" and "Historian" on Amazon and other websites offering book reviews.

Orlando Figes, a history professor at Birkbeck College London, realised that his wife had embarked on a campaign of attacks against other top academics and authors after being confronted about the reviews.

Oxford historian Robert Service's texts on Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin were among many to come under attack, being described as "dull" and "awful" by the commenter. However, it was not until the Cambridge academic Dr Rachel Polonsky responded to similar attacks on her book Molotov's Magic Lantern that the extent of the controversy was revealed.

Dr Polonsky noticed that the same reviewer savaging her own books would consistently praise works by Professor Figes. Her suspicions were further raised by the criticism of the Samuel Johnson Prize winning book The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, as "not nearly as good as its many plaudits in the press and book prize judges think." Figes' own book had lost out to The Suspicions in the prize. Polonsky also recalled an earlier disagreement with Figes in 2002.

Polonsky informed Service of her findings, and he in turn warned the academic community about the attacks, condemning them as "electronic denunciation".

In response to these allegations, Amazon withdrew the reviews. Service persisted, calling for the exposure of whoever was responsible and an ending of what he saw as a serious continuing problem.

Figes protested his innocence, backing this up with communications with Amazon which showed he was unconnected with the "Orlando-Birkbeck" account. He claimed "that would have been the very last nickname I would have chosen."

His lawyer, David Price, argued that another critic was responsible, and had used Figes' name as a way to discredit him. Polonsky was not convinced and contacted her own lawyers. The situation was settled when Price released a statement claiming Figes' wife was responsible for the reviews. He went on to say that the couple were planning to resolve the situation personally.

Ray Webster - News Reporter

Photo Credit: James Appleton