<p><b>As Napoleon himself once said, 'History is a version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.' </b><br><br>Noted down in historical documents, copied and widely repeated, it doesn't take long for a version of the truth to become accepted as fact. But <b>who invents these false accounts</b> in the first place, and why do they gain traction so quickly? <br><br>Far from concerning the obscure and insignificant parts of our history, these <b>fundamental inaccuracies</b> and downright lies colour the depiction of many of those pivotal characters and events we learnt about at school. <b>Cleopatra</b>, <b>Marco Polo</b>, <b>Captain Cook</b>, <b>Joan of Arc</b>; most of us could reel off a fact or two about each. But as this intriguing book reveals, a closer examination of these core parts of our social and political history shows that often all was
