The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail | 
 enlarge | Authors: Richard Leigh, Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £4.99
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Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 14037
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 614
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7 x 4.1 x 1.7
ISBN: 0099503093
EAN: 9780099503095
ASIN: 0099503093
Publication Date: September 7, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 47 more reviews...
 Read as fiction ... it is enjoyable March 11, 2009
pointone (Bournemouth UK)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
Being aware of the controversy about the probity of the Priory of Scion I researched the order on the internet and decided to read the book on the basis it was a fictional academic investigation against an accurate historical background.
The history comprises seventy five percent of the text, and the rest relates to the biblical background and the author's hypothesis.
The whole concept seems like a good idea that did not work, and should have been abandoned; also even if you incline to their hypothesis the suggested proofs are simply ludicrous.
However the book is written in a very engaging way about the Cathars and the Merovingian dynasty,and can be recommended if the idea appeals to you.
 Amusing rubbish July 18, 2008
A verocious reader (London)
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
Consider this: Leigh and Baigent sued Dan Brown and his publishers because The Da Vinci Code was ripping off their ideas of Jesus having been married etc. It seems to me you can only do this when your own book is fiction as well -- and so it is.
I found it a tedious read, and offering no proof that Jesus was ever married. No decent scholar these days would make that claim: there is simply no proof whatsoever, anywhere. The 3 authors decided what the conclusion was going to be and then set out to find the "evidence" to fit their thesis -- guys, this is not how it works.
It baffles me that such total rubbish pretending to be serious research is bought by people.
Semi-Entertaining work of "Fiction" March 8, 2008
Matthew Turner (Reading, UK)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Having been only a toddler when this first came out in 1982 I missed out on all the controversy back then. To be honest, having read the book now, I can't see what all the fuss was, and still is, about.
This is pseudo-history, plain and simple. The authors throughout state that this is where the evidence has taken them, even reluctantly. However, one gets the impression that the authors know where they are going from the start, and are making their conclusions fit the evidence. This evidence, it should be noted, includes hypotheses that later on become facts. Similarly, questions which they pose themselves, and are rarely answered, later on become a basis for further "facts" upon which to build their hypotheses.
This is mildly entertaining though, hence the three stars. The bits about freemasonry, grail romances and the links, however tenuous, between the so-called Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion, is pretty mundane reading. The book only gets interesting, for me, when it looks in to the gospels, the last section of the book.
As we now know, the Priory of Sion, with its "Dossiers Secrets" was a hoax, and it is apparent that the authors fell for it.
In conclusion I'd recommend it to anyone interested in this sort of topic, but take it with a pinch of salt.
Alas, it all turned out to be a hoax March 5, 2008
Grev (Brighton)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I read this book in the early 90's when I was a student and it's adventurous musings completely blew me away.
UNFORTUNATELY...
BBC2's Chronicle, if memory serves the programme the author's worked on when they unearthed the books 'mysteries' and hit the big time, did a follow up programme years later and discovered that Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln (and Chronicle for that matter) had been had big time. The creepy little French bloke claiming to lead the Prieure De Sion (or however it's spelt) - and who therefore by extension was a blood relative of Jesus Christ himself - was actually a professional con man who saw Baigent and Leigh coming a mile off and fed them just enough information to string them along for years!!!
Baigent and Leigh refused to accept the evidence (and well they might because it made them look like complete pratts, not to mention threatening their cash cow) but the evidence was pretty damning. As for all their subsequent speculations concerning the Dead Sea scrolls and their radical reinterpretations of the bible, that mostly turned out to be the result of inept research combined with three extremely vivid imaginations.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted! And at least they made a lot more money out of it than the conman!!!
Mind boggling - until you realise it was all a hoax March 5, 2008
Grev (Brighton)
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
I read this book in the early 90's when I was a student and it's adventurous musings completely blew me away.
UNFORTUNATELY...
BBC2's Chronicle, if memory serves the programme the author's worked on when they unearthed the books 'mysteries' and hit the big time, did a follow up programme years later and discovered that Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln (and Chronicle for that matter) had been had big time. The creepy little French bloke claiming to lead the Prieure De Sion (or however it's spelt) - and therefore by extension was a blood relative of Jesus Christ himself - was actually a professional con man who saw Baigent and Leigh coming a mile off and fed them just enough information to string them along for years!!!
Baigent and Leigh refused to accept the evidence (and well they might because it made them look like complete pratts, not to mention threatening their cash cow) but the evidence was pretty damning. As for all their subsequent speculations concerning the Dead Sea scrolls and their radical reinterpretations of the bible, that mostly turned out to be the result of inept research combined with three extremely vivid imaginations.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted! And at least they made a lot more money out of it than the conman!!!
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