Author: Read, Piers Paul
Genre: History
Tags: Catholicism, History / Story / Narrative
Series:
Rick Shrader‘s Review:
This is a trial read of a Barnes & Noble book by an English author and authority on Catholic history. Read traces the history of the Knights Templar, the medieval protectors of the Jerusalem temple during the times of the Crusades. My interest in the Knights Templar is due to the fanciful re-creation of history by Dan Brown and his popular DaVinci Code. Read, a Cambridge Scholar, meticulously traces the Knight’s connection to the protection of the temple and any connection they may have had to temple secrets such as the Holy Grail. His conclusion? Brown and others have turned history “into a wild fantasy,” and according to Malcolm Barbar, Britain’s foremost Templar historian, such stories as the DaVinci Code have created “a very active little industry, profitable to scientists, art historians, journalists, publishers, and television pundits alike.” Read concludes also, “Intriguing though such speculations may be, they betray by their use of language the lack of a plausible historical foundation.” It was 350 pages of interesting history as well!