Richard Leigh

American novelist and writer, lived most of his life in London, England. Leigh met his frequent co-author Michael Baigent while living in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Leigh introduced Baigent to the alleged Rennes-le-Chateau mystery in France. In the same decade he met British television scriptwriter Henry Lincoln who was lecturing at a summer school.[clarification needed] The three discovered that they shared a common interest in the Knights Templar. The three developed this lecture series into their 1982 book, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. This book popularised the idea that the true object of the quest for the Holy Grail was to find secret descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. This bloodline is stated to have later married into a Frankish royal dynasty, the Merovingians, and to be championed and protected by a secret society known as the Priory of Sion. These theories were later used as a basis for Dan Brown's international best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code. In March 2006, Baigent and Leigh filed suit in a British court against Brown's publisher, Random House, claiming copyright infringement. On 7 April 2006 High Court judge Peter Smith rejected the claim. On 28 March 2007, Baigent and Leigh lost their appeal, and were faced with legal bills of about 3 million pounds. Leigh died on 21 November 2007 in London from causes related to a heart condition. Link to Wikipedia biography