Fake Heroes: Ten False Icons and How they Altered the Course of History

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In spite of its battlefield specificity, The Art of War has found new life in the modern age, with leaders in fields as wide and far-reaching as world politics, human psychology, and corporate strategy finding valuable insight in its timeworn words.

Otto chocks up the good points and bad points as if trying to tip the scale of opinion: sure, he was a bit of a bastard and a racist to-boot but on the plus side he did a lot of work for charity and was an inspiration to millions of amputees. If you’re adult enough to step out of the echo chamber that is social media and be challenged, this book is an eye-opener.

According to the late great Wally Herbert, it takes a person around two years to become competent at running dogs, Scott had no chance of managing this, whereas the Norwegians would have been running dog teams for years, due to, y'know, living in the Arctic.

But the reason many people haven't heard of him was Ian Gleed was gay, and for the British propaganda efforts of the war that didn't really fit the mould.

His upbringing was quite well to do, and such were the class divisons in the Argentina of his day that people of his class thought nothing of the teenage Guevara routinely raping the family maid. Unravelling against the social and political turbulence of 1980s Nigeria, Stay With Me is a story of the fragility of married love, the undoing of family, the power of grief, and the all-consuming bonds of motherhood. Scrutinising figures from the worlds of art, politics, business, religion and royalty, he brings to light the murkier truths they would rather have kept buried away, at the same time as celebrating the unsung heroes lost to time. The rocks collected turned out to be hugely important and proved that Antarctica was once forested, cha-ching!

Otto’s writing style is accessible and as another reviewer has said, this and Fake History ought to be required reading in school. Captain Scott became an explorer not due to any passion for adventure and scientific discovery, but purely because arctic explorers were the rockstars of the world at the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century.Over the past few years, Brianna Wiest has gained renown for her deeply moving, philosophical writing.

Controversial but never dull, timeless and up-to-date, it's destined to be Greene's next best seller. The author chooses to pick a “hero” Daniel Deniehy and contrasted his work to that of the obnoxious “hero” William Wentworth. Hades, God of the Dead, has built a gambling empire in the mortal world and his favorite bets are rumored to be impossible. Some of them weren't particularly competent, and achieved wealth and fame largely on the back of the efforts of others around them.

The reader is left with an understanding of historical events which is perhaps closer to the real ‘truth’ than the often quasi propaganda portrayed by Hollywood movies, newspapers and school history books. this is just plain wrong - the Norwegian team were dogsledding, meaning that they were doing much less physical work than the British team, who were manhauling (pulling the sledges themselves). The chapter on Henry V is a description of that king's foolhardiness in war, but then toward the end has a strange segue into Australian history, with the connection tenuous at best.