The Templar's Curse

Despite its inflaming title, this is a solid narrative history intended more for general readers rather than the academic community. Lord (local and regional history, U. of Cambridge) begins with a history of the order of the Knights Templar but focuses on the arrests, trials, and punishments of the Templars after Pope Clement V's 1307 decree to arrest and disband the order. Concluding chapters discuss the guilt of the Templars and offer a look at who comprised the order, and the Templar legends from Mary Magdalene to the Freemasons. Although clearly intended for the general public in this post-Da Vinci Code world, the book's academics are sound if slightly generalized, and an extensive bibliography will bring further research to the fingers of more interested readers. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Evelyn Lord is course director of the Master of Studies of Local and Regional History at the Universityof Cambridge, and staff tutor in local history. She has published widely on local history in academic and popular journals. Her latest paper compares the way in which the Templars farmed their land in Hertfordshire with other ecclesiastical and secular landlords. Her books include DerbyPast, Investigating the Twentieth Century: A Local Historian's Guide to Sources, The Knights Templar in Britain(Longman)and The Stuarts' Secret Army (Longman). Her interest in the Templars comes from leading field trips to Denny Abbey in Cambridgeshire; one of the Templars' hospitals in England.