I read about this in a relatively recent (within last 5 yrs) issue of Fortean Times (or possibly BBC History magazine, but I don’t think that’s it), and it’s been driving me crazy because I can’t remember the title. A book was published in the 1980s in Britain, claiming to be the account of either a time traveller from the Victorian/Edwardian age, or the recently unearthed account of an inventor (first to fly, or something similar?) from the same time period (yes, I know this is rather vague!). There was a photo of the alleged author, looking like the model of a Dickensian extra in splendid black beard, pince nez, and top hat (this photo was reproduced in the article I read). As it turns out, this book was completely bogus, the photo in fact being of the genuine, present-day author made up in period regalia. But it was apparently all in good fun, more a spoof/satire/prank than a hoax. Apparently copies of this work are rather rare today. Thoughts, anyone, on the title?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_time_travel_science_fiction None of them I presume?

Could you be thinking of An Account of a Meeting with Denizens of Another World, published as fact, describing a Victorian gent’s encounter with strange shapes and lights in his own words, followed by biographical information about him? I found it in a secondhand bookshop in Inverness. I wrote a letter to Fortean Times about it, which wasn’t printed, but a couple of issues later the real author of the book wrote a forum piece about it. Unfortunately, I’m fairly sure I got rid of the book during a clear out a few years ago.