"Everyone loves a mystery and the Mystery of Rennes-Le-Chateau and its surrounding landscape, once home to the Cathars and Templars, is one of the most enduring.
‘The Map and the Manuscript’, contains everything I love: secrets, cryptography, puzzles, riddles, geometry, wordplay and more. I felt I was taken on a journey which managed to inject fascinating new information and insights that I had never encountered in previous books or films on the subject.
It is thoroughly researched with great attention to detail, and I valued the fact that it is not written by someone who has visited a handful of times, or indeed never, but from someone who, through a series of synchronicities, came to reside there and speaks French.
I have never visited this part of France but Simon Miles’ powerfully evocative descriptions transported me to the location to the degree that I felt I could touch the landscapes he was describing.
This is a book which will keep even those familiar with the various theories hooked to the end and it delivers a new and satisfying ‘hidden in plain sight’ solution to one of the most intriguing mysteries of our time."
- Kate Cassidy, Author of The Secret Work
A great book by a very interesting writer, Simon Miles, who spent several years living in Rennes-le-Château in the south of France, uncovering the fascinating enigma of the Rennes affair. This book, vividly illustrated, shares Simon's discoveries, including some very interesting insights into this mystery and it also answers many of the key questions. These include the discovery of some extraordinary ancient interventions in the landscape around the village, located in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and the involvement of a previously unsuspected person in the Rennes affair whose identity opens a window on the whole mystery. The book also offers a solution to the mysterious coded parchments, said to have been found by the priest, which are shown to conceal a hidden geometrical map, the "map in the manuscript" of the book's title. Also interweaved is an interesting chapter on Jung and alchemy as well as ruminations on dreams, mandalas, writing, poetry, geometry, maps, landscapes, maps of the mind, and the power of the subliminal image.
- Will G.
"I mentioned this book several weeks ago - I have read it - and it really is a fascinating read."
"I was intrigued but slightly sceptical when I heard about this book, and its claim to offer new and compelling solutions to the mysteries of Rennes-le-Château. Having followed the topic for many years, I thought there was really nothing left to be said. Having now read it however, I have to say that the author has delivered on the promise, and then some. This is really an astonishing book that contains much more than I could have anticipated. " Read more...
- Jacob Mortimer at Waterstones
