The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail

This book has bee famous since its release in the 80s, and I read it immediately after reading a wonderful book called the Inquisition by Messrs Baigent and Leigh. A splendid history which I highly recommend.I was trained in history and law during the 60s and 70s so have no prejudice against books written in the pre- technology explosion of the last 15 years, but I found the "The Holy Blood" a hard book to continue reading for very odd reasons. Its expose of the history of the middle ages is valid, but some pivotal elements of the reasoning from a set of facts to a conclusion, are spurious and involve either religious belief as a support or that there be not too much attention to the threads of an argument. Some aspects of the book only make sense in a religious setting, and for an aggressive atheist the book simply was irritating claiming on one hand secular inspiration for the authors, while carrying necessary religious belief on the other hand for fundamental validity of the book's conclusions.The book shows signs of a beat up for controversy, "explosive" information is used half a dozen times to describe information which now is a ho-hum.I put the book down and abandoned it 3 times only to pick it up again a week and another book later. Finally I reached the end with a shrug. Generally a waste of time compensated by some great passages with sound research for some of history's amazing events, such as the Albigensian Crusade and the Cathars.What monsters peopled the Medieval Church! It would take another book to track the flaws in this volume, which are no longer likely of even academic interest.

Very interesting read, even though most of their source material (dossiers secrets) used at time of publication was later proven to be forgeries/hoax. Still very good read, & great to see where Dan Brown got 95% of his material for "The DaVinci Code"

Great books goes back into the history books and give a good recollection of the thing made a great impact to modern religion as we see them today

Slow shipping, great read!

The authors have done exhaustive research in writing this book. I have been reading it for several days & have done some of my own research on my PC RE: some of the names & places they mentioned. It is, without a doubt, very thought-provoking. It does not, up to the point where I am in the book, change or create any questions or doubt about my own religious beliefs (Lutheran). I will, if asked, recommend it to some of the members of my church.

Very interesting and thought provoking, but rambles at times. It is worth going back and reading The New Testament after this book, as it throws a new light on the information presented there.

Read it when it just came out, reread it again now that it is digitally available. Got me on a trail of a totally different way of thinking about Christianity and our history. Forever grateful for the writers/researchers of this book.

It is brilliantly written, an excellent book,the only criticism is that the maps are too small on kindle.Great research

I enjoyed this book. I don’t wish to give the story away by pointing to some of the claims made by these authors, but the book has a huge reputation. I remember it coming out in the early days and the controversy that surrounded it at the time. The authors refer to this in their introduction to the book.I found all this intriguing, along with Henry Lincoln’s investigation into the mystery that kick starts the book and sets the authors off on their quest for The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, which all seemed like a cryptic crossword waiting to be solved. And the authors come up with a theory that sounds, on the face of it, very plausible indeed. However, whether the authors’ hypotheses are correct or not, I don’t know; it will be of course up the the readers themselves to judge. But the whole thing does make some fascinating, some would say fanciful, reading.I would add that the book is not always an easy read; in parts it is quite difficult and I had problems trying to follow all the names that I kept encountering; and I did find some sections more interesting than others. However, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in conspiracy theories that has an open mind to consider alternative interpretations and explanations of events.I hope you find my review helpful.

What an amazing read! My partner had learned about the Knights Templer years ago and after badgering him (probs a bit too often) to retell the tale he advised me to start by reading The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. So . . . I did.First off for anyone that likes picking up a book, reading it for half an hour or so, putting it down then coming back to it a week later I would stongly advise against this tact. For anyone with a bad memory (me) this is a great training aid. It is akin to walking down a direct path, seeing all the side roads and deciding to take them . . . you may get lost unless you are paying attention. It is superb fun!I feel like I have mentally walked all over europe with a bag marked "intrigue", opened lots of hidden doors and peeped in, found a part of a jigsaw popped them in my intrigue bag, then opened another and found another piece of a jigsaw but for a completely different puzzle.As you may have garnered I love this book. Still to finish as I need to recap myself on what I have learned A LOT!I highly recommend this book it is so good!

This book purports to tell the story of the Knights Templar and several other groups but as always, when writing about secret societies, there is no way of checking the facts. This author bases his thesis on very few substantial events but nevertheless creates an apparently coherent dialogue. Caution is advised whilst reading.

I haven't yet read the book, so I'll edit my review at a later point about the content of it, but what disappointed me is that I got mine with the back cover almost completely torn.Altho it's not something I cannot fix myself with a little bit of tape, I don't feel any good about it, as now I must be extremely careful holding it.This is my first ever problem with any order, so I put 3/5 stars, as I'm not sure who's fault is that, the carrier or those responsible for the book. Ordered the book with 2 other and they are in excellent condition.Other than that, the book itself seems to be really interesting as seen by the reviews of other people, and I look forward to start reading it.

This is a fascinating book for anyone that is interested in such things. I am interested which is why I bought it however, you can tell that three people were involved in the writing of this book as all too often it repeats itself time and time again which makes it hard to read and move on. Did they not have an editor to edit? I still haven't finished reading it.