A nineteenth century French priest discovers something in his mountain village at the foot of The Pyrenees which enables 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 twelfth and thirteenth centuries and a dynasty of obscure French kings deposed more than 1,300 years ago. The author's conclusions are persuasive: at the core is not material riches but a secret - a secret of explosive and controversial proportions, which radiates out from the little Pyrenees village all the way to contemporary politics and the entire edifice of the Christian faith. It involves nothing less than... the Holy Grail.

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