Knights Templar in Paperback - Now Available

The new paperback edition of The Knights Templar: The History & Myths of the Legendary Military Order is now available. You can get a copy here.

The book is revised, mainly in the final chapter on Templar myths and mysteries, plus I've also added a new Afterword which details some of the new research on them. Interestingly, this research - undertaken by academics - seems to suggest that some of the myths about the Order might have some substance to them... 'No smoke without fire,' as the old saying goes.

Templar Documentaries Now on DVD

The first two Templar documentaries I did, The Templar Code: Crusade of Secrecy (History Channel) and Secrets of the Code (an independent feature documentary, narrated by Susan Sarandon) are now available on DVD here.

They're both NTSC (i.e. North American) discs, so you'll need a multi-region DVD player to watch them.

Goings on in Stone Circles

On Saturday, I found myself taking part in a Druid ceremony in a stone circle to celebrate Lughnasa (AKA Lammas - see the 891 Filmhouse Blog for a tad more info). During the ceremony, we played a game to symbolise the war and trade we presume ancient Britons to have indulged in. This basically took the form of running across the field, trying not to get tagged by the opposing side. I was sadly tagged, at which point I had to freeze on the spot. (I was one of 3 people from our side to get caught.) At this point, the rest of my side had to ransome me and the 2 others - and I can happily report that the ransome paid was a bottle of Old Peculier! Very apt, methinks.

On similarly pagan/heretical lines, I will be turning my quill to revamping The Gnostics soon, as a new edition is due out at Yule (AKA Christmas, the 12 Days of Consumer Overkill), and I would like to put in the few things that I actually forgot to put into the first edition. I'll put up an Amazon link to the new edition once one appears.

Until then, may your God go with you, as Dave Allen used to say.

New Editions A Go-Go

The Knights Templar will be out around the middle/end of next month in its first UK paperback edition. This is a newly updated version of the book, which essentially means I've been tinkering with the last chapter again, and have also added a new Afterword.

In further developments that I have heard about on the grapevine - i.e. I found out on the net, not via my publishers - that The Gnostics is also receiving the paperback treatment in December. I'm not sure at the moment whether this will be an updated edition or not.

And while on the subject, there are distant rumours of a new edition of Andrei Tarkovsky planned for 2010-ish. (Further distant rumours suggest that I have in fact finished New Waves in Cinema at last. These rumours are sadly unfounded...)

In the meantime, you can always investigate the works of the great UFOlogist John Keel, who has just Left the Building. Recommended titles: The Mothman Prophecies, Our Haunted Planet and Operation Trojan Horse, while Patrick Harpur has some interesting things to say about him in Daimonic Reality.

The Templars & the Shroud

New Evidence links our old friends the Templars with the Turin Shroud. Go here to read all about it.

The new edition of my book on the Templars new edition of my book on the Templars is due out in September, as is the new Dan Brown novel. Surely a coincidence? Or are the Illuminati still at work and moving behind the scenes?

John Michell, 1933-2009

The great John Michell has left the building. Cancer. He was 76. More here and here.

I met him once, back in February 1988 (I think it was) at Gothic Image in Glastonbury. It was the launch party for Dimensions of Paradise, I seem to recall. And if there's one book that re-enchanted my relationship to the English countryside, it was his The New View over Atlantis.

So, if you're in Glastonbury today, head over to Beckett's and raise a toast to the great man. Otherwise, stop and be silent for a moment. Better still, go for a walk in the woods and think about eternity. I hope John is in some celestial tavern, talking alignments with Stukely over an ale or two.

Templars in Scotland

Yes, the Templars were all over Scotland, Hugues de Payen married a Sinclair, they all escaped in 1307-12, the fleet landed there, they helped win the Battle of Bannockburn and it is also the part of the world where I finished the revised version of the book, which is due out in June. The book contains a number of new earth-shattering revelations, including a recent photo of Lord Lucan at Rosslyn Chapel (applying a bit of Brasso to the Holy Grail with Jim Morrison supplying the bread and wine)... Yes folks, it's all true. And none of it. But at least the book is done and coming to a website near you soon.

On another note, today is the 627th anniversary of Nicholas Flamel's second successful transmutation. I wish he were here now to help me transmute the MS of my latest book into something coherent and finished...