Strange news stories and inventive adverts from newspapers of past decades

Key points

• Greek author and playwright Thomas Sitaras has published a new book, And No Worse, drawing on 330 stories, clippings and cartoons from Greek newspapers of past decades. The collection includes a candidate who blamed an amulet seller for failing entrance exams, and a 1906 newspaper report of shopkeepers in Athens offering free goods to a prospective Marathon winner.
• Sitaras said the newspapers gave equal attention to everyday oddities and political events.
• He drew on digitised newspapers held by the Library of Parliament, and said he hopes the book will bring back a sense of laughter from that era.