LONDON - Author Dan Brown insisted yesterday he didn't read the book he's accused of plagiarizing until after "The Da Vinci Code" was published and his wife gave it to him as part of a "refresher course" to help him answer the arcane questions pouring in from fans.
Brown, taking the witness stand for a second day in the copyright-infringement case brought by the authors of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," said he was intimidated when big crowds came to "Da Vinci Code" book signings and peppered him with questions about medieval and church history.
With his earlier books, "I might have had five people in the audience, three of them bookstore clerks who'd take off their badges so I wouldn't feel bad," he recalled.
Brown said he called his wife, Blythe, who had done much of the research for his book, and said, "I don't remember this stuff ... give me a refresher course."
They used role-play techniques, he said: "She would ask me questions and I would try to remember." They would exchange e-mails from their home offices and at lunch she would show him a passage and tell him to "memorize this."
Brown insisted that he had not read "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" in 2001 when he prepared a synopsis of "The Da Vinci Code" for his publisher - and he pointed out that he did not list it in his bibliography. Both books explore claims that Mary Magdalene was Jesus' wife and bore him a child.
But Jonathan Rayner James, lawyer for "Holy Blood" authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, sought to cast doubt on his testimony.
"You acquired a copy of 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' before you accept in your evidence you did," the lawyer said.
Brown thumbed his well-worn copy of the book - one of about a dozen volumes lined up on Judge Peter Smith's bench on themes like the Knights Templar and "the sacred feminine." He insisted the annotations in the text were made after "Da Vinci Code" was already in progress. Most of the research books the couple used were marked up by Blythe Brown, he said, citing her "pretty scrolly brackets" in the margins.
Brown said his wife was not testifying because he wanted to spare her the ordeal of facing the packed courtroom. "I'm the guy who wrote the book and I'm the one who's responsible for what's on the pages," he said.
