The forger's shadow

This book not only brings alive the extraordinary characters at the centre of literary forgery, but also demonstrates that without them, out literature might have been very different. In this fascinating book, the author focuses on the supreme forgers who have haunted our imaginations for years: Thomas Chatterton, Romantic inspiration, whose supposedly tragic life was more myth than reality ; James Macpherson, constantly at war with Samuel Johnson ; the extraordinary William Henry Ireland, who wrote two 'new' Shakespeare plays ; and the notorious Thomas Griffiths Wainewright - forger, artist and poisoner.