What do you think of all the controversy over The Da Vinci Code?
SD: I think that it is absolutely tragic that we live in a world that can no longer distinguish between fiction and reality. We have manufactured news trampling down the once highly-regarded institution of journalism; we have bookstores carrying speculative conspiracy theory books in the history section, and we have fiction books like The Da Vinci Code, and now The Lost Symbol, being accepted as fact by the masses. I think those things are of far greater concern than the controversy The Da Vinci Code stirred up. And yet they weren’t. IFP: What is your favourite nonfiction book about the Templars? SD: You mean other than Nobly Born? I’m a big fan of Malcolm Barbers’ two books The New Knighthood and The Trial of the Templars. That is not to take away from Helen Nicholson, Alain Démurger or any of the other classically-trained medieval historians, but Barber’s books are excellent all-around resources. IFP: What is your favourite fiction book about the Templars? SD: I’m not really big on T
