The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail [Audio Download]

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.

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.

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!