I cannot hope to list all those who have helped me in writing this book. To do so would entail producing an almost complete muster of my relatives, friends and colleagues, all of whom have had something to say on this topic. I maintained for so long that I was writing a book about lying without being able to demonstrate tangible signs of progress that I soon acquired the reputation, not of becoming an expert on lying, but of being already a liar, at least in respect of my academic pretensions. This long delay, however, gave me the opportunity to benefit from the innumerable suggestions made to me about what questions I should tackle, what sources I should seek to tap, and what conclusions I might be able to draw. When at last I began to write I was already halfway towards my goal. I must thank the graduate students who participated in my course on lying at Flinders University in 1990 for stimulating me to begin writing; I am most grateful to Riaz Hassan for giving me the opportunity to discuss this topic with them and to Jillian Litster for trying out some of the ideas that emerged. I must however also express my debt to Jerzy Zubrzycki for having, many years earlier, dobbed me in as an expert on a topic about which I then knew nothing, thus starting me on the trail leading to this book.