The Secret Scroll

This is the story of a how a little known manuscript in a Masonic Lodge in Kirkwall has become one of the most important historical documents of the Middle Ages. It is also the story of the Templars, who were its guardians, and of what happened to them after the Crusades. Although references to this famous order of military knights rarely appears in standard histories of the time, a great deal of information about them can be gleaned from other, more esoteric sources, such as sculpture and architecture. Suppressed by Philip of France out of greed, the Templars were gradually driven underground in more and more European countries. Yet they continued to exist, still guarding the knowledge and relics that they had gathered for the defence of the Holy Land. It is this that connects all this to Henry St Clair, Earl of Orkney and Grand Master of the Knights Templar and discoverer of America. All of these threads come together in one extraordinary scroll still in Kirkwall which revelas in full the secrets of the Knights Templar.

Andrew Sinclair is a leading novelist, historian and film-maker, and has lectured widely in Europe and America. His books include biographies of Jack London, John Ford, Che Guevara and Dylan Thomas. He appeared in a special feature DVD in May 2005 of Jerry Bruckheimer's Disney blockbuster, National Treasure.