Product Description

A vast number of people have become enthralled with the story of the nineteenth-century French priest who, in his mountain village at the foot of the Pyrenees, discovered something which enabled him to amass and spend a fortune of millions of pounds. The tale seems to begin with buried treasure and then turns into an unprecedented historical detective story - a modern Grail quest leading back through cryptically coded parchments, secret societies, the Knights Templar, the Cathar heretics of the 12th and 13th centuries and a dynasty of obscure French kings deposed more than 1,300 years ago. Now, after more than ten years of research, Henry Lincoln and his co-authors, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, publish the results of their inquiry into this taunting enigma. What really lies at the core of this discovery of Rennes-le-Chateau is not material riches, but a secret - a secret of explosive and controversial proportions, which radiates out from the little Pyrenees village to encompass the whole of Western civilisation. The secret is no mere historical curiosity. Its repercussions stretch all the way to the contemporary politics and the entire edice of the Christian faith. It involves nothing less than the Holy Grail - not as a mystical chalice of medieval legend but as something more tangible which has played a vital role in the shaping of Western history. The enigma extends to our own day, implicating such men as de Gaulle and Malraux. It also casts an astonishing new light on such events as the Renaissance and the Crusades. Most startlingly it pertains to the origins of Christianity and the very identity of Jesus.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59749 in Books
• Published on: 1996-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 614 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln, and Richard Leigh, authors of The Messianic Legacy, spent over 10 years on their own kind of quest for the Holy Grail, into the secretive history of early France. What they found, researched with the tenacity and attention to detail which befits any great quest, is a tangled and intricate story of politics and faith that reads like a mystery novel. It is the story of the Knights Templar, and a behind-the-scenes society called the Prieure de Sion, and its involvement in reinstating descendants of the Merovingian bloodline into political power. Why? The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail assert that their explorations into early history ultimately reveal that Jesus may not have died on the cross, but lived to marry and father children whose bloodline continues today. According to the authors, their point here is not to compromise or to demean Jesus, but to offer another, more complete perspective of Jesus as God's incarnation in man. They claim that the power of this secret, which has, they say, been carefully guarded for hundreds of years, has sparked much controversy. For all the sensationalism and hoopla surrounding The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail and the alternative history which it outlines, the authors are careful to keep their perspective and sense of scepticism alive in its pages, explaining carefully and clearly how they came to draw such combustible conclusions. --Jodie Buller

From the Publisher
"One of the most important and thought-provoking works to appear in recent years." The New Humanity

From the Back Cover
The most shattering secret of the last two thousand years

The first publication of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail in 1982 sparked off a storm of controversy that continues to this day.The enigma: a discovery at Rennes-le-Château that offers little in the way of material wealth, but whose secret rocked the foundations of contemporary politics and the Christian faith.The players: the Knights Templar, the Cathar heretics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and a dynasty of obscure French kings deposed more than 1,300 years ago.The conclusion: as persuasive, controversial and explosive as it was when first published over twenty years ago.The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail is not just a classic of its kind, it’s a book that’s impossible to put down.

‘All the ingredients of a classic 19th-Century mystery novel…a book that will be hotly denounced and widely read’ Financial Times

‘Has all the ingredients of an international thriller…incredible’ Newsweek

Simon Prebble has had more than 60 roles in television, plays, serials, and documentarites, including Hamlet, Six Wives of Henry VIII, and Photofinish. He has recorded more than 200 audiobooks in his career.

An abridgement of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail (C) Michael Baigent, Richard leigh & Henry Lincoln 1982,1983

Published by Century in hardback and Arrow in paperback

Produced by Kevin Thomsen

Executive Producer Jacob Bronstein

Abridged by Garet Scott

Jacket/image credits?

(P) Random House Audiobooks 2006

Customer Reviews

forerunner of the da vinci code
Whether you believe the premise of the book or not(and I don't),it's a fantastic read. I hope this new edition sells well after being mentioned in Dan Brown's bestselling Da Vinci Code.
More facts have come out about the truth(or lack of it) about the secret society supposedly protecting an earth shattering secret,but I still recommend buying the book because it's very well written unlike many of this genre. It contains references the reader can check.
The book will introduce many accepted facts about the knights templars,early history of christianity,merovingians and carolingians and the cathars which you can learn while taking with a pinch of salt the controversial stuff.Thats what I did and it stimulated my interest in these subjects,something that wouldn't have happened if I just had dry boring history books. By making it almost an exciting detective story it stimulates the readers interest and keeps you turning the page.
Brilliant.

Entertaining nonsense
To an extent. Some of what is contained in this book is documented historical fact, and as a professional historian, I'm always delighted when material is presented in a fashion that interests a wider audience. I view this sort of thing as the written equivalent of a cinematic 'historical' epic. Is is particularly accurate? No. But it doesn't pretend to be either -the authors do stress that many of their conclusions are conjecture, no more. What it is, is entertaining, and will introduce people who might never otherwise have taken an interest in history to, to take a single example, the Crusades. And that's fine by me -it might well prompt them to take a greater interest in history in the future.

There are inumerable problems of course. For each of the documented facts, there are at least a dozen erroneous ones. Much of the source material utilised is questionable at the very best. And yet I still find myself unable to condem them, as I would with many other books, for, as I mentioned above, they stress the fact that their conjectures lack proof. The book itself is actually well written for what it is; unusual for a book with several authors, it is sensibly set out, the style[s] is / are fluid and readable, and it's good fun.

Some suggest this book is blasphemous. Fair enough, that's their opinion, though I don't share or even understand it. As far as I know, there is nothing in the Bible, or accepted Christian doctine, that states that Jesus could, or perhaps I should say, 'should' not, have been married. I don't believe it (part of me would like to), but I fail to see what is so very wrong about the idea. He was supposed to be a Man as well as the Son of God -that was the whole point insofar as I am aware. Still, if you are going to be upset by it, don't bother to read. Save yourself the money, the time, and the raised blood pressure. The rest of you -give it a try. Something to look at on holiday, provided that you go in with a mind open enough to accept a new idea, and sceptical enough to appreciate the limitations.

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
I read this book ten years ago and loved it. I read the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown in half a day over the Christmas Holidays, only because so many people recommended it, all of which had never read the Holy blood. If they had have done they would have found the Da Vinci Code tedious and derivative. It was an okay yarn, but nothing special. To anyone who has read the Da Vinci Code and has been intrigued, read this book. To the reviewer who could not believe it was a best seller - everyone I knew read this at least 10 years ago and made their friends read it too - so it really was!