Mr Qayoom, I think you have a very naughty friend!

http://anatheimp.blogspot.com/2010/10/imp.html?showComment=1287288449588#c3326857544748920034

Many thanks to "Mr Anon" for letting me know about this link to some interesting info. This is an untitled comment on a blog post titled “Imp” at a blog that is not the comment writer's blog, written by a person who appears to be Daniel Tammet’s childhood best friend who was mentioned by name in Tammet’s first book. In this comment Rehan Qayoom recalls how Tammet/Corney was once obsessed with Anna Anderson, presumably in his youth. Anna Anderson was one of many imposters who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, who was one of the Russian royal family murdered by the communists. This is an interesting piece of information for a number of reasons. Firstly, it shows that Tammet had a strong interest in an imposter early in his life, which was perhaps the origin of his grand deception. Secondly, Tammet changed his surname in 2001 from Corney to Tammet. His explanation is that his original surname “...didn't fit with the way he saw himself” while he liked the name Tammet “It means oak tree in Estonian, and I liked that association.” (Johnson, 2005). But it seems to be too much of a coincidence that Tammet appears to be an imposter of a sort, and the surname Tammet was once used by an imposter who like Anna Anderson claimed to have been a surviving Romanov. His real name was Ernest Veermann, AKA Heino Tammet AKA Alexei Tammet-Romanov. The third reason why the link between Tammet and Anna Anderson is interesting is that some people believe that Daniel Tammet was the same person as the one who went by the name “Daniel Andersson” claiming to be a psychic at an internet forum, and also the person who went by the name “Dr. Daniel Andersson” claiming to be “a qualified medical practitioner with more than thirty years’ clinical experience” at an online internet forum. It would seem to be a neat arrangement for an impostor to take on the names of his predecessors in pretence for his deceptions, but is it true?

Sources

Qayoom, Rehan (2010) [untitled blog post comment on the post titled "Imp"] Ana the Imp. October 16th 2010.
http://anatheimp.blogspot.com/2010/10/imp.html?showComment=1287288449588#c3326857544748920034

Andersson, Daniel (2001) Psychic Daniel Andersson. Psychics. Yahoo Groups. August 2nd 2001
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/psychics/message/1712

Andersson, Daniel (2001) Doctor's Advice on the Atkins Diet. Epinions. October 19th 2001.
http://www.epinions.com/review/well-Nutrition-Diets-All-Atkins_Diet/content_43731553924