Reviewed By Tim Lethaby
for Mid Somerset Newspapers 20th July 2006

I have been interested in the Knights Templar since playing the computer game Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars back in the mid-1980s. This group of ‘warrior monks’ has become more famous in the past few years thanks to Dan Brown’s best-seller The Da Vinci Code and this surge of interest has led to this book. The Templar Papers is compiled and edited by Oddvar Olsen of Glastonbury, and is a sample of articles from his publication The Temple.

As a subject matter I found the book to be fascinating and a refreshing alternative to the Da Vinci Code wannabes which are flooding the market at the moment. The Templar Papers covers the whole mystery of the Knights Templar and goes into plenty of details about legends relating to them. Among the many subjects covered are the origins of the order and whether they are guarding the Holy Grail and their possible link to modern Freemasonry.

As well as Olsen’s pieces, there are contributions from Templar experts such as Lynn Picknett, Robert Lomas and Yuri Leitch. Of all the authors, I found Olsen to be the most fascinating to read, covering the most interesting subjects and being the best written. At times some of the other authors go off on such a tangent they are difficult to follow and can read like a history textbook rather than an interesting paperback.

Locally, Glastonbury Abbey is mentioned by Olsen in his article about Abbot Henry de Blois, the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail.