From the moment when the BBC2 ‘Chronicle’ documentary ‘The Lost Treasure of Jerusalem?’ was transmitted at 5:30pm on Good Friday 31 March 1971, Henry Lincoln has been guilty of perpetuating the pseudo-historical myths dating from the mid-1950s of Rennes-le-Château as concocted by Noël Corbu, Pierre Plantard, Philippe de Chérisey and Gérard de Sède – these myths have long been laid to rest in France – updates on the subject matter have been published in French books since 1974 – and in particular by Editions Bélisane from 1983 onwards – but Henry Lincoln remains undaunted by such things – and that "monument of mediocrity" (as described by one French critic) ‘The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail’ continues to disseminate pseudo-historical myths on a massive popular scale. The activities of the Abbé Bérenger Saunière (as well as those of Pierre Plantard) are very well documented but Henry Lincoln has not noted these facts and they are certainly not to be found in any of his books.

A one-time television scriptwriter for British television series like ‘Dr Who’ and ‘Emergency Ward 10’ – Henry Lincoln planned from an early age to become an actor and he starred in episodes of ‘The Avengers’ and ‘Man In A Suitcase’ during the 1960s. Lincoln also co-wrote the screenplay to the 1968 Boris Karloff film ‘The Curse of the Crimson Altar’ and thus was ideally suited to become that someone to collate, to promote and to popularise something that belonged to the world of the imagination.