Hoax: Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment

Here lies Fanny Lynes, whose whispers from beyond the grave set London alight with scandal.

Here swings Mary Bateman, who lived a life of solace and lies - and died a prophetess and murderer.

Here stands Mary Willcocks. Or is it Anne Burgess? Or perhaps Princess Caraboo, from the distant island of Javasu?

A ghost. A witch. A princess.

This is a story of those who lie. But also of those who choose to believe them.

The discoveries emerging from the laboratories and libraries of 18th-century Britain unsettled as much as they excited. New truths challenged longstanding beliefs. Rationalism jarred with superstition. Which voices would be heard in this ferocious battle for certainty?

From the chaos, three women and their hoaxes rose as symbols of terror and fascination. But were the lies surrounding Fanny Lynes, Mary Bateman and Mary Willcocks entirely of their own making? Why, and how, did the public become transfixed?

Questioning culpability and complicity, Madeleine Pelling's engrossing history of this great age of the hoax reveals a veiled world of moral panic, tall tales and true crime, and holds a mirror to our own turbulent relationship with the truth.