Bookplanet: the Da Vinci Code trial

'Da Vinci Code' Author Testifies in London -- by SARAH LYALL

Not much was learned about copyright law on Monday in Britain's High Court, where the author Dan Brown is defending himself against charges that he stole the central themes of "The Da Vinci Code" from another book.

But as the elusive Mr. Brown took the stand for the first time, the packed courtroom heard a great deal about his background and how he goes about producing his mega-bestselling novels. He often writes his last chapter first. His forceful wife, Blythe Brown, does much of his research, though he does not always read the things she tells him to read. He grew up without a television and inherited a love of brain puzzles and codes from his father, a math teacher who used to devise elaborate treasure hunts leading to the family's Christmas presents.

And in a revelation that is sure to cheer up Random House, his current publisher (and the defendant in the lawsuit), Mr. Brown said he felt that Simon & Schuster, which published his earlier books, did a terrible job of promoting them. His wife had to take charge of the marketing campaign herself, Mr. Brown said in a written statement presented to the court that formed the basis for the day's questioning; the couple had to finance their own publicity tour and "were forced to literally sell books out of our car." He considered giving up writing altogether.

Mr. Brown, 41, was appearing as the star witness for Random House U.K., which has been sued by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, two of the three authors of a nonfiction book called "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" (the third author, Henry Lincoln, is not participating). Mr. Leigh and Mr. Baigent contend that Mr. Brown violated their copyright by lifting his book's central theme — what they call its "architecture" — from theirs.

For his appearance, he discarded his customary black-turtleneck-and-tweed-jacket combination in favor of a more formal blue blazer and yellow tie. But it was an incongruous juxtaposition: the relaxed, confident and quintessentially American Mr. Brown surrounded by a gaggle of legal personages comically attired in Dickensian wigs and robes and addressing one another as "my lord" and "my learned friend." At one point, the lawyer for Mr. Leigh and Mr. Baigent, Jonathan Rayner James, asked Mr. Brown if his local bookshop, the Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, was "the only bookstore in New Hampshire."

"New Hampshire is a small state," Mr. Brown responded, "but not that small."

The testimony, too, seemed almost bizarre at times, with Mr. Brown discussing, for instance, points like "when I learned that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute" and explaining how, when he wanted to write about a secret society in "The Da Vinci Code," he decided to focus on a shadowy group called the Priory of Sion instead of on the Masons. "I decided to shelve the Masons for another day," he said in his statement.

"The Da Vinci Code" has been the runaway best seller of the 21st century so far. The thriller about a professor who sets out to solve a murder in the Louvre and stumbles into a shadowy world of secret societies, hidden messages and ancient conspiracies has spawned countless spinoffs and literary refutations; has created an industry in which impassioned readers make pilgrimages to the historical sites it mentions, searching for clues to the Holy Grail; and has been denounced by some Christians angered at what they say are its heretical ideas.

The film version of the book, starring Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen and Paul Bettany, is scheduled for release on May 19.

"The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" is a work of nonfiction — "historical conjecture," is how its authors describe it — positing that Jesus survived the Crucifixion and went on to marry Mary Magdalene, that the couple's descendants are still flourishing today, that factions within the Roman Catholic Church are eager to suppress this information, and that the Holy Grail may not be a vessel or chalice, but rather a bloodline — the bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

Mr. Brown acknowledges that he used "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" (published in the United States as "Holy Blood, Holy Grail"), as a source for his book, but contends it was just one of many books and documents he and his wife consulted. Indeed, his protagonist specifically refers to the book in a pivotal scene in "The Da Vinci Code" — a homage, Mr. Brown says; the name of one of Mr. Brown's characters, Sir Leigh Teabing, was devised as an in-joke reference to "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail," using the surname of one author and an anagram of the surname of another.

Mr. Baigent and Mr. Leigh's case will rise or fall on how much they can prove that Mr. Brown relied on their book in writing his.

So far, their lawyers appear to have only scratched the surface of the issue, although they have in their possession what Mr. Brown says are all his notes, outlines and research materials.

In his statement to the court, he said that "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" was full of material that did not appear in "The Da Vinci Code," and vice versa.

"I would like to restate that I remain astounded by the claimants' choice to file this plagiarism suit," he said. "For them to suggest, as I understand they do, that I have 'hijacked and exploited' their work is simply untrue."