The albatross which features in 'The Ancient Mariner' isn't really an albatross - that's to say it isn't the albatross you first think of, the Great Wandering Albatross. It's either the Sooty Albatross or the Black-Browed Albatross (both of which are much smaller and easier to hang round your neck if you feel guilty about having killed one). Butch Cassidy did not die in a gunfight in Bolivia in 1909, as portrayed in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: in 1925 he turned up at the family home in Circleville, Utah and ate blueberry pie. Hitler was a vegetarian.

LRB 29 September 1988 | PDF Download