Disclaimer: Owing to an international shortage of raw fibs, some of the lies you have encountered on the islands are not from the British Library at all, we just made them up last night over a drink. We're really sorry.
Traveller’s tales
Movie 1
These were real lies invented by real people:
The Many-Headed Wak Wak Tree
John de Mandeville's sightings of giant snails and two headed geese
Monopods, one-eyed people, Patagonian giants, Persian pygmies and the Blemmyae
Movie 2
These lies were made up by us:
The walking trees of Borneo
Giant poisonous snow slugs
The Swamp Man of the Everglades with his twenty foot neck
The Shape of the World
Movie 1
These were real lies invented by real people:
Chinese map with huge China and the rest of the world pushed to the edges
The claim that the world is hollow
The theory that the stars are holes in a hollow shell around the earth
The belief that the world is like a giant biscuit
Movie 2
These lies were made up by us:
The theory that in 10 years the Amazon River will be in the Pacific Ocean and Mexico will be overrun with elephants.
Continents move because of magnetic forces between land masses
The image of the earth as a giant ball of string
Disinformation
Movie 1
This was a real lie invented by real people:
The British army plants a dead body disguised as 'Major Martin'. The body is carrying faked military papers outlining secret plans to invade Greece. The plan throws the German battle plans off course.
Movie 2
These lies were made up by us:
Dogstoyevsky, the first dog on the moon.
Charlatans and Hoaxers
Movie 1
This was a real lie invented by a real person:
William Henry Hartley’s pain-killing medicine (made of aloes, potash, alcohol and pepper.
Movie 2
These lies were made up by us:
Mariana Strench, an amateur geographer and palaeontologist makes up an imagined land called Mutopia.
