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The Great Ossian Hoax: McCall Smith Investigates

Duration: 30 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC FourLatest broadcast: on BBC Four

Crime writer Alexander McCall Smith investigates one of the greatest literary frauds in history. When James Macpherson uncovered heroic Scottish poems dating back more than a thousand years, they caused a sensation. But they sparked a 20-year war with the literary giant Dr Johnson, and left Macpherson with a reputation as a calculating swindler. McCall Smith travels through the Highlands to uncover the true story of the poems of Ossian, and how they changed the course of European art forever. Show less

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