Would British scientists really test sarin nerve poison on young volunteers and tell them it was research for a cure for colds?

Would they really release E. coli in Swindon and Southampton to try out germ warfare techniques?

Even 50 years on, no-one's telling the whole story.

Conspiracies and cover-ups, real or imagined, have shaped our world. Now leaked cables and declassified papers are rewriting the history of our times. More information must be good, but how do you tell truth from fiction?

In this fresh look at 50 conspiracy theories, Ian Shircore cuts through the fog and misinformation to deliver a balanced analysis of the key facts behind unsettling suspicions that litter our recent past. Today's new evidence - from WikiLeaks, freedom of information requests and declassified archives - has solved some classic mysteries.

Yet it raises more questions than ever about the assassinations of the 1960s, the dirty secrets of the late 20th century and the earth-shaking events of recent years. Once you've seen what WikiLeaks has revealed about the radioactive poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, you won't be so sure about the British secret service. Once you've weighed the evidence yourself, you may well decide there was a second Yorkshire Ripper, that cricketing hero Bob Woolmer was murdered and that rock icon Jim Morrison's death in Paris was anything but straightforward.