Back in the hazy, distant days of 1977, the annual japery of April Fool's Day was far from a fixture in the UK's newspapers. But then The Guardian ran a seven-page feature on the remote island nation of San Serriffe, in the Indian Ocean – complete with descriptions of its two main islands, Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse, its capital Bodoni, and its ruler, General Pica. Of course, it was all an elaborate joke, with most of the names being punning references to typographer's terminology. But huge numbers of people fell for it – aided perhaps by the fact that the paper roped in many legitimate advertisers, including Guinness and Kodak, to play along with the gag. The Guardian's office switchboard was flooded with phonecalls from gullible people wanting more information on the fictitious islands.The San Serriffe joke is notable not only for sparking the British press's fondness for April 1 tomfoolery, but also for being the most sustained untruth ever printed by the Guardian that wasn't the result of a spelling error.
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