How many national anthems are plagiarised?Several of the world's national anthems are shockingly similar to other compositions. Is this because composers pilfer other people's tunes - or does it tell us more about the difficulties of writing an original melody, asks Alex Marshall, author of a new book on the history of national anthems. Dusan Sestic is arguably the world's unluckiest composer. Back in 1998, he found himself short of money
