
Literary hoaxes and an underground cathedral
Published: November 29, 2025
Duration: 1:01:21
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 a...