It seemed like the classic American story of rags to riches, and it had won rave reviews from the critics.

According to her acclaimed memoir, Margaret B Jones was a mixed-race girl who had been abused as a child and brought up by foster parents in gritty south-central Los Angeles. She claimed to have kept herself alive by running drugs for local gangs.

But, according to the compelling pages of 'Love and Consequences: A Memoir for Hope and Survival,' she managed to escape her traumatic upbringing to better herself, graduating from the University of Oregon before becoming a writer.

The problem with this tale - as her publisher, and the critics, have just discovered - is that it was invented.

Today the 33-year-old, whose real name is Margaret Seltzer, was exposed as being not mixed race but white. She was not brought up in south-central LA but in the well-to-do Sherman Oaks suburb.

And, far from running drugs to keep herself going and talking the language of the street, she went to private school.

In an interview with the New York Times when it revealed her true upbringing today, Ms Seltzer admitted that large parts of her memoir were invented.

Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin Group USA, immediately announced that it was recalling all copies of the book and cancelled her scheduled tour, saying that it represented a "personal betrayal" as its staff had been completely taken in by Ms Seltzer's story.

"It's very upsetting to us because we spent so much time with this person, and we felt such sympathy for her, and she would talk about how she didn't have any money or any heat, and we completely bought into that and thought we were doing something good by bringing her story to light," Sarah McGrath, the Riverhead editor who worked with her for three years on her book, said.

"There's as huge a personal betrayal here as a professional one."

Explaining why she had chosen to tell tales, Ms Seltzer said that she had wanted to "put a voice" to people from poor neighbourhoods who never get listened to - even though she was not one of them.

"Maybe it's an ego thing - I don't know," she said. "I just felt that there was good that I could do, and there was no other way that someone would listen to it."

Revelations of the fabrication come after a succession of good reviews - although some critics appeared to have their suspicions about the book's authenticity.

Writing in the International Herald Tribune, Michiko Kakutani had reflected: "Some of the scenes she has recreated from her youth (which are told in colourful, streetwise argot) can feel self-consciously novelistic at times."

But she added: "Jones has done an amazing job of conjuring up her old neighbourhood."

Vanessa Juarez, from Entertainment Weekly, wrote: "Readers of Love and Consequences may wonder if Jones embellishes the dialogue — much of which she remembers from childhood. But what shines through is a powerful story of resilience and unconditional love, in a country that can too easily forget the people it fails."

Ms Stelzer's seemingly compelling story unravelled when her photograph was widely published alongside book reviews. Her older sister, Cyndi Hoffman, read one of them, realised who Margaret B. Jones really was, and telephoned her publishers to break the news.

The news came less than 24 hours after another well-known American public figure, the British-born celebrity chef Robert Irvine, was dropped from his show after it emerged he, too, had faked parts of his CV.

Mr Irvine had claimed that he was given a knighthood by the Queen and given a castle to live in, as well as cooking for Charles and Diana's wedding and a host of other royal engagements.

However, the St Petersburg Times, a US regional newspaper, found that the 42-year-old, who was brought up in Salisbury, Wiltshire, had never been knighted, as he had claimed, or been offered a castle by the Queen. Neither had he helped prepare the food for Diana's wedding.

Ms Stelzer is the latest in a line of writers revealed to have faked sections of their memoirs.

Last week, it emerged that a Holocaust memoir written by Misha Defonseca, entitled: Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years, had been made up.

Two years ago, James Frey, author of the best-selling memoir: A Million Little Pieces, was revealed to have exaggerated details of his drug-addiction.

Times Recommends

• Google to digitise Iraqi artefacts
• Renault angers parents by naming new car Zoé
• Analysis: most lawless part of Philippines