As the Jason Arday affair continues to dominate our social-media feeds, it’s worth remembering that he’s far from the only figure who may have sprinkled his life story with space dust.

Zack Polanski – leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, who was quick to defend Arday against allegations of plagiarism and fabulism – instantly comes to mind. Polanski once claimed to have ‘worked’ for the Ministry of Justice. This ‘work’, we now know, consisted of performing as an actor in an occasional DEI workshop. As for Polanski’s claim to have been a spokesman for the Red Cross, he has apologised, stating he ‘did not use the right word’ when describing his role. Much as I would not be using the ‘right word’ if I said I was once an astronaut.

When it comes to his previous career high of offering to increase the size of women’s breasts using hypnosis, Polanski has told so many whoppers about that – including falsely presenting himself as a full member of the National Council of Hypnotherapy – that he has now earned the nickname ‘Walter Titty’. Yet here’s the thing. Polanski’s delusional character may have been staring us in the face all along. Just look at the name he chose for himself.

Polanski has never made a secret of the fact he changed his name when he was 18. Born David Paulden, he has often said he changed his surname to honour his Jewish ancestors who had adopted an anglicised version of Polanski (or Polinski) after emigrating to the UK. Which sounds fair enough.

However, Howard Jacobson, who grew up alongside Polanski’s family in Manchester, has suggested Polanski’s performative change of name may have been less about honouring his grandparents and more about throwing shade on his existing family. As Jacobson points out, Polanski’s grandparents – who were buried close to his own relatives – went to their graves happy to bear the name Paulden:

‘Modest, generous business people with a sense of humour, relaxedly Jewish. The Pauldens. A nice name, I think, every time I pause before their graves, on the way to visit my parents.’

More intriguing is Polanski’s choice of first name. David is a perfectly good Jewish name, after all – as the Bible will attest. Polanski claims he dropped it because it was also the name of his stepfather with whom he didn’t get on. So then why did he not use his own perfectly good middle name of Stephen? Perhaps that would have been too mundane for a man who claims his first kiss was with ‘a young Muslim man called Jihad’.

It turns out that Polanski named himself after a fictional character in a children’s book. He was inspired to call himself Zack after Zacharias or Zach Wrench, an eight-year-old boy from Michelle Magorian’s novel, Goodnight Mister Tom. The fictional Zach, you may be unsurprised to learn, exerts an almost magical influence on other characters. You might even say a hypnotic one.

The young David Paulden may have seen other parallels between his own life and that of the fictional Zach. Zach dreams of becoming an actor. So too did young David, who went to acting school. Zach is also Jewish.

There may be a more compelling reason that Zacharias Wrench seared himself into the imagination of David Paulden. Much has been made by fans of Goodnight Mister Tom of how the story of Zach echoes that of Jesus. He helps his friend, William, a fellow evacuee who was abused by his family, put the trauma of the past behind him, teaching him to love the world and other people. Zach then dies tragically. When he is killed in an air raid, William is inconsolable. Or he is until Zach returns from the dead, in a manner of speaking.

When he rides a bike Zach left behind, William is overwhelmed by a deep spiritual experience: ‘As he rode, his coat flapping behind him, the crisp wind cooling his face, he suddenly felt that Zach was no longer beside him, he was inside him and very much alive. The numbness in his body had dissolved into exhilaration.’

Death, it seems, has been unable to conquer the redemptive power of little Zach. His goodness lives on, healing William from within. Might Zack Polanski have identified with this mini-me Messiah?

Whatever drove him to adopt the name, it seems that Polanski, like little Zach, believes he has a special, sacral role to play. It is our misfortune that millions of deluded young people seem to agree with him.

Malcolm Clark was LGB Alliance’s head of research from 2019 to 2022. Visit his Substack, The Secret Gender Files, here.