Fake Heroes: Ten False Icons and How they Altered the Course of History

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Amundsen will always be a polar hero, but he is not so highly regarded due to falling in with the likes of Mussolini and his big interest in The Fash during his later years. In her bright and energetic performance of this British classic, she expertly captures Austen’s signature wit and tone. A little way into the chapter on Scott we are told: "In the Heroic Age, leading a grand polar expedition was a surefire path to swift promotion, medals and glory, and Scott was a hugely, hugely ambitious individual who chased after it all. Separating the myth-builders from the fraudsters and celebrating some of the genuine unsung heroes from our history, Fake Heroes exposes the truth of the past and helps us understand why that matters today.

Outlander introduces an exhilarating world of heroism and breathtaking thrills as one woman is torn between past and present, passion and love. John F Kennedy’s heroic status has only grown after his assassination ,says English, with much of the myths around him concocted after he was killed. According to the late great Wally Herbert, it takes a person around two years to become competent at running dogs, Scott had no chance of managing this, whereas the Norwegians would have been running dog teams for years, due to, y'know, living in the Arctic.There was never any sense in which Andy Warhol tried to claim otherwise, as his entire artistic life was about blurring the boundaries between consumerism and art. These are great stories, but Churchill never said either of those things, or many of the many things attributed to him. While their bodies are frozen, their minds, still active and awake, are uploaded into a massive quantum computer. The extraordinary thing about the Wesley Autrey story, he says, is that he was a black American in his 50s from a working class background, who rescued a white movie film student who he’d never encountered before.

But like so many great people and thinkers throughout history he had a troubled side, a tormented soul and some considerable human flaws too. The idea that Scott was "utterly humourless" might be an easy dig at his character but is not supported by facts.Instead, he happened to have a face that had icon written all over it and ended up incessantly emblazoned on middle-class bedsit walls and t-shirts across the world, as much of a capitalist consumerist brand as Coca Cola. If furs were worn for manhauling, the wearer would overheat and sweat, the sweat would freeze and the wearer would be at risk of hypothermia and death.

Scrutinising figures from the worlds of art, politics, business, religion and royalty, he brings to light the murkier truths they would rather have kept buried away, at the same time as celebrating the unsung heroes lost to time.Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.