However, as soon as I saw that there was a chapter on Captain Scott my heart sank a little bit, and I thought to myself "I bet he's only used the Huntford".

Fake Heroes: Ten False Icons and How they Altered the C…

There were some areas that captured me, the war and how it is still glorified, brainwashing kids history, Churchill.This book is a brilliant insight into people and points in history that I often knew very little about. Their lies are bought into by millions and continue to be as so many have been transfixed in the past.

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

This comprehensive guide is packed with data on countries’ politics, populations, economics, and environment for 2022 and looks ahead to 2023.In a world with so much information at our fingertips, it's more and more important to be able to sort the wheat from the chaff, and Otto English's book goes a long way in helping do just that. A little way into the chapter on Scott we are told: "In the Heroic Age, leading a grand polar expedition was a surefire path to swift promotion, medals and glory, and Scott was a hugely, hugely ambitious individual who chased after it all.

Fake heroes : ten false icons and how they altered the course Fake heroes : ten false icons and how they altered the course

Scott's men were dressed in Burberry weather-proof coats, provided by their sponsor, which would have been fine for a windy walk in the Fells, but which were fairly useless for Arctic conditions.Keane uses the experiences of his ancestral homeland in north Kerry to examine why people will kill for a cause and how the act of killing reverberates through the generations. Firstly, I think the author is just a little too open in using the book to display his political opinions. After nearly three decades reporting conflict from all over the world for the BBC, Fergal Keane has gone home to Ireland to tell a story that lies at the root of his fascination with war. It’s a love letter to the importance of history and about how, without knowing where we come from – truthfully and entirely – we cannot know who we are.

Fake Heroes: Ten False Icons and How they Altered - WHSmith Fake Heroes: Ten False Icons and How they Altered - WHSmith

I know these points come from Huntford, so my quarrel is more with him than with this book, but it's so tiring seeing this kind of information repeated and believed over and over again.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.