Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail [Hardcover]

I didn't take it seriously, of course. The List Of Things To Do To Find The Holy Grail was just a joke. It was a bit like Safety Pin, the band that Scabies had formed with three or four others in our street. Safety Pin were a 'quiet punk' group. So quiet that, despite having been together for two years, they had never had so much as a single practice let alone anything approaching a gig. The best they'd managed was the occasional impromptu band meeting, which took place when everybody happened to be in the Griffin at the same time. The 'meetings' mostly involved arguments about who was going to play what instrument (invariably resulting in somebody quitting only to rejoin a couple of pints later) and discussions about the title of Safety Pin's debut album. Dangerous When Opened was Scabies' favourite. No Pricks was another suggestion.

Joking aside, I couldn't deny that THE ACCURSED TREASURE OF RENNES-LE-CHATEAU had sparked my imagination. I caught myself thinking about Berenger Sauniere and his fortune at odd moments of the day - on the bus, in the bath - and it wasn't long before I was asking Scabies if I could borrow another book about the mystery.