Authors claim Dan Brown stole their ideas to write "a pretty bad novel"

The authors are Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent who (along with Henry Lincoln) wrote the 1982 book Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Leigh and Baigent are suing Brown for plagairism:

Mr Leigh, an American who has lived in England since 1974, and Michael Baigent, 57, a New Zealander, his co-author, are suing Random House, Brown's publishers, for infringement of their ideas. They are funding the action with the proceeds of their book, which Random House has reissued in a special £20 hardback edition to cash in on the success of Brown's novel.

The funniest quote:

Speaking ahead of a preliminary hearing of the case next week, Richard Leigh, 62, one of the writers, said: "I don't begrudge Brown his success. I have no particular grievance against him, except for the fact that he wrote a pretty bad novel."

Hear, hear! However, I'm sure that Leigh does indeed begrudge Brown his success, otherwise why would he be suing the novelist? The article continues:

Intriguingly, the only mention of his book in The Da Vinci Code is when its villain, an eccentric English historian called Sir Leigh Teabing, lifts a copy off his bookshelf and says: "The authors made some dubious leaps of faith in their analysis, but their fundamental premise is sound."

There may be just one mention of Holy Blood, Holy Grail in The Da Vinci Code, but the influence of the 1982 book on the blockbuster novel is evident, not only in the claim that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, but in many (false or skewed) details about the Council of Nicaea, Emperor Constantine, the formation of the New Testament canon, and so forth. Meanwhile, the novel's claims about Leonardo da Vinci and his artwork are almost all taken from The Templar Revelation (1997), written by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince. That book insists that Leonardo's The Last Supper depicts Mary Magdalene, not the Apostle John, seated to the right of Christ. However, Holy Blood, Holy Grail claims that "Jude Thomas, or Jude the Twin" — allegedly Jesus' twin brother according to Leigh and Co. — is seated to  the right of Christ. No word yet if Picknett and Prince plan to sue...

Comments

[Jackson]

I saw that clown, Richard Leigh, on a recent History Channel show about The Da Vinci Code (I wonder why they didn't put you on the show, Carl?). There he was in his dark sunglasses and leather jacket puffing away on a cigarette a speaking with a faux British accent. His comments themselves were even less impressive. He, along with the breathtakingly vacuous Starbird, simply made one assertion after another, which was presented as argument. Pathetic.

[Dick Connors]

Seems like a pretty obvious case to me. I read Holy Blood, Holy Grail twenty-odd years ago when it first came out, and when I read Dan Brown's opus last year It was crystal clear it had been lifted from the earlier book. Except that Brown's writing is high school level. The original book was much better.