Seriously though, speaking only for myself, whenever I read a story or book set during a period of history I'm familiar with (and I'm speaking of non-Doctor Who ones of course), I generally don't mind if an author fudges the historical facts slightly to tell a good story.

I'm trying to rack my brains of an instance where an author grossly distorted historical fact just to tell a story, but I can't recall. I know it's happened, though...