About this episode
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.
Our guest is literature lecturer Dr Hetta Howes on major literary hoaxes around the world.
We hear about Howard Hughes' fake autobiography, the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá in Colombia and how the Indian musician Ravi Shankar taught George Harrison the sitar.
Plus, the Indian woman who led her country's first delegation to the United Nations, the Premier League's first female photographer and how Toy Story revolutionised animation.
Contributors: Clifford Irving - American author who faked an autobiography of Howard Hughes. Dr Hetta Howes - a senior lecturer in English Literature at City St George’s, at the University of London. Jorge Enrique Castelblanco - Colombian engineer behind the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá. Ravi Shankar - Indian sitar maestro. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit - led India's first delegation to the United Nations in 1946. Magi Haroun - the Premier League's first female photographer. Doug Sweetland - animator on Toy Story.
(Photo: Clifford Irving leaving the Chelsea Hotel in New York City, followed by news crews in 1972. Credit: Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)
This programme has been updated since the original broadcast, with concert dates and song writing credits corrected.
Get every episode summarized
Each time The History Hour publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Hosts & guests
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
More from The History Hour
The world’s first perfume archive and Dutch car-free Sundays in the global oil c...
The History Hour
Cleaning up Chernobyl and Canada’s war in the woods
The History Hour
Winning the Booker Prize and discovering a lost fairytale
The History Hour
Hitler’s teeth and the Leaning Tower of Pisa
The History Hour