The Dan Brown Enigma by Graham A Thomas

Author:Graham A Thomas
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781843584582
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2011-04-25T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

* * *

MEDIA FRENZY AT THE OLD BAILEY

While Brown was facing an ever-increasing attack from the Church and religious groups in America and around the world, he again found himself entangled in a court case. It seemed to be never-ending.

In August 2005, Lewis Perdue brought a lawsuit against Brown, claiming he had plagiarised his two novels, The Da Vinci Legacy and Daughter of God. When Perdue lost his case, Brown breathed a sigh of relief. With that out of the way he’d hoped he could concentrate on his next book, but that hope proved to be short-lived. Nine months later he found himself embroiled in another court case and this one was at the Old Bailey.

The authors of one of the books Brown had used as his research – and had credited in his novel – decided Brown had infringed their copyright and mounted a lawsuit against his publisher, Random House, in the UK. These authors were Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh who, together with Henry Lincoln, had written The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, published in 1982. The central idea to their book was that Mary Magdalene and Jesus had married and had a child, and the bloodline of that union continues today.

Brown was stunned by their action. ‘I have been shocked at their reaction,’ he said in his High Court witness statement, and why shouldn’t he be? He’d given them an accolade in the novel itself when he created the character of Sir Leigh Teabing, an anagram of Baigent and Leigh.

Brown hadn’t thought up Teabing until he was well into researching and writing the book. ‘I initially conceived the character because Langdon and Sophie needed somewhere to rest and eat before moving on to London,’ he explained. ‘As well as providing a safe haven for Sophie and Langdon, I needed to create a character who could say some of the more far-fetched and controversial things that I initially had Langdon saying.’ In his witness statement Brown said he wanted to ensure Langdon’s integrity was preserved, enabling him to play devil’s advocate, provide some historical detail and allow Langdon to stand back a little.

So Brown decided to use the character of Teabing as a nod to the two authors. He had several reasons for doing this. The first was because The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was in his opinion a more traditional book than many of the other sources he was using. ‘It seemed a more fitting match for my Teabing character, whom I had crafted as an old British knight.’[190]

One of Brown’s traits as a writer is to use the names of people he knows and cares about or respects, which was another reason he included Baigent and Leigh. Though he didn’t know them, he respected their book because it was the first to bring ‘the idea of the bloodline into the mainstream,’ Brown explained. ‘I decided to use the name Leigh Teabing as a playful tribute to Mr Baigent and Mr Leigh. I

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