Wednesday, June 21, 2006

REVIEW: ‘Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail’ by Christopher Dawes

Pretty much as the title suggests, this book is about the quest by former drummer in The Damned, Rat Scabies, to find the Holy Grail – specifically by looking into the mysteries surrounding the small French village of Rennes-le-Chateau.

Dawes, a former music journalist and friend of Scabies, gets drawn into this despite his reluctance, and writes about it well; his précis of the Berenger Sauniere mystery is admirably succinct, and saves the reader the trouble of reading the Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln book on the same theme, as it’s summarised in about a dozen pages. He does well at explaining the whole bloodline-Merovingians-Poussin-Plantard tangle, though he’s sceptical about it all (rightly, to my mind).

The back cover of this book suggests it’s a ‘testament to the bizarre nature of friendship’, which I wouldn’t wholly go along with, but if you want to have a fun read, this certainly fits the bill.

No comments: