THE NEW JERUSALEM Adrian Gilbert, Bantam Press, London, 2002. Hardback, 290 pages, £17.99. ISBN: 0593 046943

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the bookshops, up pops yet another tome, ready to devour the unwise, those who chose to swim in the murky shallows off the literature island of Wah Wah. Be warned, for here you will be obliged to negotiate quotes from works as manifestly daft as The Hiram Key, and encounter ideas, which like the micro life inhabiting the shore’s rocky inlets, will be washed away on the next noon tide.
    The accompanying press release boasts that the book discovers "the true history of London", and that the city was "the prophesied New Jerusalem". But as my old Professor used to say, "bad books make bad essays", and after a cursory glance at the not too extensive bibliography at the rear of this tome, those cautionary words resonate. Indeed, after a more extensive perusal, I got the distinct impression that the author was not wholly convinced of the thesis being propounded himself. And when one reads: "If this is true (and it has to be admitted that this line of argument contains many maybes, ifs and mights)" you sense a confession might be looming.
    As is customary in this speculative genre, there is the usual litany of errors far too numerous to list here. There is not a shred of evidence that the Knight Templars excavated beneath Temple Mount; or were responsible for the erection of Europe’s cathedrals; or held lodges within their preceptories; or were present at the battle of Bannockburn: the assertion that Sir William Sinclair of Rosslyn was Grand Master of the Scottish Templars, merely confirms that the worst of reading matter was diligently sought. Furthermore, the Freemasons did not acquire their name through a right to free travel; the Kirkwall Scroll dates from the eighteenth and not the fifteenth century; there were only two degrees when Grand Lodge was founded, not three; and the United Grand Lodge of England did not emerge until 1813, ninety-six years after our author claims to the contrary.
    Matthew Scanlan