Fraudulent British Professor Releases Memoir Riddled With New Inconsistencies

British professor Jason Arday, previously exposed as a plagiarist and serial fabricator, is preparing to release a memoir titled Great and Unfortunate Things. The book is set to be published on August 11 by major publisher Simon & Schuster, but according to The Atlantic, it looks likely to deepen the scandal rather than clarify the author's biography.

It previously came to light that Arday had lied about his academic and athletic achievements, his volunteer work, and the hardships he claimed to have overcome — including alleged incidents of racist violence. As The Atlantic's Daniel Engber notes, the new version of his story differs noticeably from the ones Arday has told publicly and privately in the past, including the original synopsis his literary agent circulated to publishers.

A Biography of Mythic Proportions

The original pitch sent to publishers described Arday's life as "an extraordinary story of almost mythic proportions." In light of the recent revelations, that description now reads more like irony. A condensed version of his biography goes like this: as an infant he was diagnosed with autism and developmental delays, he did not begin speaking until age eleven, and he did not learn to read or write until adulthood. His parents were immigrants from Ghana; he grew up wearing homemade clothes and earned money playing pool. Despite these and many other obstacles he has described over the years, Arday made it into university, then graduate school, earned a doctorate, and became an academic star.

Dramatic Details and Strange Coincidences

The book is packed with dramatic episodes and startling coincidences. According to Arday himself, as a teenager he was beaten so severely by a group of young men that he developed epilepsy. When the attackers were caught, he claims he generously asked the judge not to send them to prison. He finished secondary school with the help of aides, even though, by his own admission, he could neither read nor write at the time. His university application was filled out by a girlfriend, with whom he later had a child.

According to Engber, by the time Arday began his master's degree, he read at roughly the level of his three-year-old daughter. Yet he claims to have overcome this obstacle too — and even landed a teaching position. Short on money, he reportedly worked simultaneously at a supermarket and as a cleaner.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz