You may have heard of the Knights Templar – might even have seen them in films such as ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ or ‘The Da Vinci Code’ – but how accurate are these interpretations? There are many myths and legends about the Templars but which, if any, are true, and what were these knights doing when not in the Middle East? This book is a look at the peace loving British Templars and their influence and importance in medieval society. Kindly donated by the publishers, so group members were able to keep their own copies.
“Tibble explodes the old myths but the documented reality he unveils is even more fascinating.” (Jonathan Harris)
So what did we think?
The Templars was a book somehow caught between being general interest, history, and a story, but somehow didn’t really achieve any of these results. Views on the books also varied – the people who liked it absolutely loved it, while those who didn’t found the text dry (and generally opted not to finish it).
One of our group described as “Fabulous” and enjoyed the descriptions, as well as the volume of coloured plates which made the history easier to visualise. Another reader felt it was very informative and very much enjoyed reading about this crusading order of knights. In fact the book has inspired one reader to go to visit Temple Balsall, as well St. Michael’s Church, Garway.
Everyone felt that the book’s subtitle ‘The Knights who made Britain’ was an exaggeration as the text mainly focused on England, although the combination of the knights in the Holy Land and the knights in England did make for an interesting comparison. The subtitle implied that there would be information about the Templars involvement in bureaucracy and diplomacy but the author seemed more interested in the development of the knights (as well as some of the more interesting crusades). At a most basic level, it appeared that the Templars wanted stability in their homeland so they could afford to go to the Holy Land to take part in the Crusades. The author didn’t talk much about how the Knights Templar were an international organisation – although this aspect was shown in their downfall.
The book had obviously been well researched using a mixture of sources. While there are many conspiracy theories regarding the Knights Templar, this is most likely due to the lack of records available, split as they were between England and the Holy Land, as much as the trials of the Templars themselves. The book appears to have been written as a response to things such as The Da Vinci Code, but we felt generally that the history was too dry even when the information was interesting.
There won’t be a SWFT Wellbeing Reading Group next month, as we suspect everyone will be a bit busy in the run up to the festivities.
However we will be back as usual in January, with a meeting at 1pm on Tuesday 21st.
Hopefully this break will give everyone plenty of time to read the books that they were given by Santa or recommend favourites that they always read at this time of year.
We look forward to seeing you then, and in the meantime, Merry Christmas!
The SWFT Library Team
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