March 30, 2004
Baby dragon hoax unmasked as publishing stunt
Never got around to posting on this, but here's what appears to be the final word, via the BBC:
An author who was so desperate to get his book published that he staged a hoax involving a baby dragon has won a lucrative publishing contract.I hope the book now measures up to the hoax:After numerous rejections Allistair Mitchell concocted a tale that a dragon had been found in a garage last year.
He said: "I created the hoax in order to attract potential readers."
Mr Mitchell, based in Oxford, has now signed an book deal with Waterstone's for his book Unearthly History, a thriller featuring a dragon.
It was claimed that German scientists created the specimen in the 1890s and sent it to the Natural History Museum in order to dupe their British counterparts.We recently checked out the Walking with Dinosaurs series from Netflix -- definitely worth a viewing (or a purchase from Amazon if you prefer).But, the story went, the museum had dismissed it as a hoax and it had been spirited away by a museum porter.
In fact the dragon was created by Crawley Creatures, the model makers behind TV's Walking with Dinosaurs, and the jar was made by a specialist glass blowing studio in the Isle of Wight.
Posted by David on March 30, 2004 12:51 PM
Walking with dinosaurs is great. There's another one with sea creatures that you should check out if you haven't seen it. I can't remember the title.
Posted by: duckling on March 31, 2004 9:14 AM
Do you mean the episode with the liopleuridon? I don't recall the title, either, but it was bundled in the same DVD with all the other episodes (except the allosaurus, which came on a separate disk, and a "making of" disk that was pretty interesting in itself).
Posted by: David on March 31, 2004 9:30 AM
No there was a whole separate series. Now I think about it they did another one about the evolution of man too. you can probably find the links on the BBC Natural History pages.
Posted by: duckling on April 1, 2004 5:27 AM
Thanks, will have a look.
Posted by: David on April 1, 2004 9:50 AM
Going back to the Dragon in a Jar Hoax - the book is called Unearthly History and it is a fantastic read.
Posted by: Swampy on April 2, 2004 4:23 AM
I bought the book a while back. I didn't know it had anything to do with this hoax-it may be a good read, but surely doing something like that breaches all kinds of ethics...
Posted by: H on August 20, 2004 4:04 PM
Probably called Cruel Sea.
And stuff.
Merry Chrismahannukwanzaa!
Posted by: Iyasu on January 8, 2006 6:23 PM
thats too bad i think we could use some magic in this boring explainable age of technology
i was excited after watching a program on the history channel... oh well back to the hum drum
Posted by: joe on March 28, 2006 6:11 PM
you guys ruin all the fun of believing in something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous on August 8, 2007 2:21 PM
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