The problem with history is that much of what you learn in school simply isn't true! For instance, King Harold was NOT shot in the eye with an arrow at the Battle of Hastings, Neanderthals were not as dumb as you'd think, Britain had an Indian curry restaurant years before it had fish-and-chip shops and the American 'Wild West' really wasn't that wild. In many ways the history we casually accept as truth is full of mistakes. One in the Eye for Harold is a riotous romp through the centuries with revelations about the untruth of large swathes of history. It shows us how fictions have coloured our views of religion, politics, war and society - and shows us how some of our most solidly held beliefs are entirely false. In One in the Eye for Harold Phil Mason - author of Napoleon's Haemorrhoids - catalogues how myth and error have shaped our view of the past, and how the history our teachers handed down is often far from the mark. It is full of remarkable insights that entertain gloriously as they challenge the conventional view of history.

Phil Mason is the author of Napoleon's Haemorrhoids and What Needled Cleopatra.