Brown: Copy claim is absurd

Author: Dan Brown
The Weekender

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The author of The Da Vinci Code today told the High Court of his shock at being accused of plagiarism.

Dan Brown said the suggestion that he stole the idea for his global best-seller from two other authors was "completely fanciful". "For them to suggest that I have hijacked and exploited their work is simply untrue" he said. Brown, whose thriller has sold 40 million copies, was giving evidence at the start of the third week of the trial.

Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh claim Brown lifted the central theme of The Da Vinci Code from their 1982 book, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail - itself a best seller. They are suing Random House, which published both books.

The controversial twist to the book is the claim that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, had a child, the heirs married into a line of French kings and the bloodline survives to the present.

The court was packed as Brown confirmed he lived in Rye, New Hampshire. He said his wife Blythe acted as his researcher and was "deeply passionate" about supporting his novelwriting by extensive reading.

In The Da Vinci Code he had mentioned a number of books as a form of tribute. "Messrs Baigent and Leigh are only two of a number of authors who have written about the bloodline story and yet I went out of my way to mention them for being the ones who brought the theory to mainstream attention," he said.

He added: "I have been shocked at their reaction and furthermore I don't really understand it.

"Their documents contain numerous sweeping statements which seem to me to be completely fanciful," he said.

"They conclude with an assertion that the overall design of The Holy Blood, Holy Grail - the design of its governing elements, its logic and its arguments - has been lifted by me for The Da Vinci Code. That is simply not true." He added "I would like to restate that I remain astounded by the claimants' choice to file this plagiarism suit." Brown said he and his wife had read about the bloodline theory long before reading the Holy Blood, Holy Grail book. "There is a huge amount of information in The Da Vinci Code that is not in Holy Blood, Holy Grail. I find it absurd to suggest that I have organised and presented my novel in accordance with the same general principles as those in that book or that I have plundered not only the facts in that book but also the relationship between the facts and the evidence to support the facts - it is simply not true."

The case continues.

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