Dan Brown has sold more than 250 million books yet can’t get a break from the critics (Image: NurPhoto via Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n Dan Brown has a simple rule of thumb when it comes to reviews. \u201cDon\u2019t read your press,\u201d he tells me. \u201cIf you read your good press, you\u2019re going to get lazy and conceited \u2013 if you read the bad stuff, you\u2019ll get insecure and depressed.\u201d The guidance came from a hugely successful woman writer, shared after some \u201cparticularly vicious reviews\u201d, who concluded: \u201cNeither one is helpful, so just put on the blinders, write the book you would want to read, and get on with your life.\u201d<\/p>\n How\u2019s that going, I wonder? The bestselling US author has the grace to look a little sheepish as he smiles: \u201cIt\u2019s been great advice, but I haven\u2019t quite been able to not read my bad reviews or my good reviews\u2026\u201d Having enjoyed global success tackling big issues of religion, science and technology \u2013 with hit movie adaptations starring Tom Hanks \u2013 the 61-year-old has been blessed with almost everything except unequivocal critical acclaim.<\/p>\n Studying the response to his new book, The Secret of Secrets, it\u2019s no stretch to suggest he might be the ultimate \u2018Marmite\u2019 writer, beloved by readers since his 2003 blockbuster The Da Vinci Code \u2013 which suggested Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child together \u2013 yet derided by the critics.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an element, I suggest, of \u2018tall poppy syndrome\u2019 \u2013 the backlash that so often follows enormous success and the strange habit we have of trying to knock down anyone we think might have got a bit too big for their boots.<\/p>\n Happily, despite the fact he\u2019s a bona-fide publishing sensation, there\u2019s no sign Brown\u2019s ego has outstripped him \u2013 and he always writes the books he wants to read. Talking for nearly an hour about the big, meaty ideas that make them so compelling, he comes across as likeable, self-deprecating and enthusiastic. \u201cI write in a very specific, intentional way,\u201d he continues. \u201cSome people love the way I write, some people can\u2019t stand it. I\u2019ve just come to accept that the people who like what I do are my fans and the people who don\u2019t are my critics.<\/p>\n \u201cTall poppy syndrome is certainly experienced around the world \u2013 particularly in the UK \u2013 but it\u2019s difficult. In any creative art, you\u2019re not gonna please everybody. Fortunately, I pleased enough people that I\u2019m able to continue writing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He pauses: \u201cThere\u2019s this strange perception that, if something is too enjoyable, it can\u2019t possibly be something of quality, it can\u2019t be art. But to write something that has mass appeal, and I\u2019m clearly biased, is far more difficult. The fact these books are fun is the reason people read them.\u201d<\/p>\n Having sold a staggering 250 million books in 56 languages, it only goes to show that the public knows best. It also suggests Brown\u2019s new high-octane mystery, of which more shortly, will be another surefire hit.<\/p>\n Fittingly for an author whose charismatic hero-cum-alter-ego, genius symbologist Robert Langdon, played on screen by Tom Hanks, is a dashing Harvard academic and researcher (\u201cHarrison Ford in tweed\u201d, in one description), Brown is talking from a library. He has Zoomed in from his wood-panelled study in New Hampshire complete with two-storey bookshelves filled with his work.<\/p>\n He chuckles: \u201cI had a couple over the other night who had a little girl and she was a book lover and they said, \u2018He\u2019s got a library in his house\u2019. And she was so excited. But she came back and said, \u2018It\u2019s all the same guy, there\u2019s no children\u2019s section!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Joining them on the shelves (and on those of his readers around the world) this week will be Brown\u2019s first book in eight years since 2017\u2019s Origin tackled artificial intelligence and its impact on our future. \u201cIt\u2019s no secret I like to write about big topics \u2013 the history of Jesus, or artificial intelligence, overpopulation, these sorts of things,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cI love to fuse the very old and the very new in these books. I write about Vatican secrets and anti-matter, I like that juxtaposition.\u201d<\/p>\n This time Brown tackles one of the biggest subjects of all \u2013 human consciousness, the idea of an afterlife and the interconnectedness of our minds. It\u2019s a topic on which he expects our understanding to dramatically alter within the next decade. Social media, he notes, is already a kind of \u201chive mind\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the lens through which we see reality and ourselves,\u201d he explains. \u201cOur misunderstandings and misperceptions make it so ripe for a very revelatory tale. I thought, \u2018This is something I want to learn about\u2019. And if history is any guide, other people will share my taste.\u201d No wonder it\u2019s taken eight years to write, then.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon and Audrey Tautou as Sophie Neveu in The Da Vinci Code (Image: Sony Pictures)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n \u201cHuman consciousness is a very ethereal topic. I had to figure out how to make it into something that felt concrete and urgent. It\u2019s kind of like trying to hug smoke \u2013 you just can\u2019t quite get your arms around it.\u201d His research \u2013 including into so-called \u2018near-death\u2019 experiences on the operating table, led him to see the world quite differently.<\/p>\n \u201cI fear death much, much less,\u201d he tells me. \u201cI\u2019m not in any hurry but I\u2019ve really come to understand that there is something beyond\u2026 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s any religion\u2019s version of heaven or hell, it\u2019s something else entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it is something and it sounds quite unifying, quite enlightened, quite affirmative. All the adjectives you hear from people who have skirted the edges [of death] are incredibly positive and peaceful \u2013 the notion that we\u2019re all alone in the world is an illusion.\u201d<\/p>\n Set in Prague, the action begins when Langdon, in town for a conference, returns to his hotel after a morning swim to discover his Princeton neuroscientist lover Katherine Solomon has vanished \u2013 along with the only hard copy of her new book. Solomon\u2019s disappearance, Langdon realises, is linked to her work \u2013 which she insists will change our entire understanding of human consciousness (and has also been stolen from her New York publisher\u2019s server in an audacious hack).<\/p>\n But can he find her, and retrieve the manuscript, before it\u2019s too late, in a chase through one of Europe\u2019s most ancient and mysterious capitals? \u201cPrague is alleyways, secret passageways, towering spires. It\u2019s a dramatic city,\u201d smiles Brown. \u201cIt\u2019s custom-made for Langdon to get lost in.\u201d<\/p>\n This protagonist, says Brown, is \u201cReally the guy I wish I could be. We share interests in symbolism and philosophy and art and architecture. He\u2019s passionate about all the things I\u2019m passionate about but he\u2019s much brighter than I am. And he lives a very exciting life. My life, of course, is spent primarily in the dark, alone in my pyjamas!\u201d<\/p>\n Featuring CIA assassins, local thugs and a mysterious \u2018Golem\u2019 (based on the famed Jewish folklore creature), the adventure unfolds at breakneck speed. With mysterious underground labs, religious conspiracies aplenty and frequent (and literal) cliff hangers, plus a generous helping of puzzles, codes and symbols waiting to be decoded by Langdon, The Secret of Secrets is classic Dan Brown territory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dan Brown’s 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code became a worldwide sensation (Image: PA)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n \u201cReaders are smart people. They like to learn and my job, first and foremost, is to entertain,\u201d explains the author. \u201cOnce that\u2019s taken care of, let\u2019s make sure there\u2019s enough here so that, as you turn the page, you\u2019re going, \u2018That can\u2019t possibly be true?\u2019 And you turn to Google and think, \u2018Wait, that was the result of an experiment? That makes no sense. How could that be?\u2019 Those sorts of moments are what I\u2019m hoping readers will have.<\/p>\n \u201cHistorically, as I say in the novel, when scientific models accumulate enough anomalies, you know they\u2019re not right. That\u2019s where we are with human consciousness.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown became a \u201cmaster of failure\u201d early in his career, for which he remains grateful. Having studied creative writing and music, he worked as a pianist and composer.<\/p>\n \u201cI went to Los Angeles, signed a record deal, made a record. Nobody bought it. It was a commercial failure. And I thought, \u2018Well, I\u2019m going to try to write a novel\u2019,\u201d he recalls. \u201cSo I wrote a novel, and the very first publisher at St Martin\u2019s Press who read it, bought it. I thought, \u2018Oh, publishing is so easy. This is going to be great\u2019. That book, Digital Fortress (1998), came out and nobody bought it \u2013 absolutely nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact it wasn\u2019t until his fourth novel, The Da Vinci Code, that he was discovered and all his previous books became overnight hits. \u201cIt\u2019s a great reminder for young writers who haven\u2019t been published or haven\u2019t had a lot of success. Just because it hasn\u2019t been a success, doesn\u2019t mean it doesn\u2019t have value, and it may find its audience later in your career.\u201d As with previous books, The Secret of Secrets contains the caveat that pretty much everything in it is true to life. Doesn\u2019t that rather make him a hostage to fortune.<\/p>\n After all, part of the backlash against The Da Vinci Code came from organised religion objecting to his interpretations? \u201cI have an interest in the real world, and so I set these stories in the real world,\u201d he insists. \u201cLiterally hundreds of fact-checkers go through these books.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re incredibly careful because of that statement, but I want readers to know, \u2018Yes, you\u2019re reading a fun fictional story, but when Robert Langdon looks at a painting like The Last Supper, or when you look at a scientific experiment like some of the ones revealed in The Secret of Secrets, I\u2019m not making that up \u2013 this is really what happened in a lab.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Prague’s Charles Bridge which features in dramatic scenes in The Secret of Secrets (Image: Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n \u201cYou can say that\u2019s totally impossible but if you go home and look it up, you\u2019ll find out that a lot of people are really, really puzzled… but it is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n As well as the novel, there\u2019s a forthcoming Robert Langdon TV series in development with Netflix<\/a> \u2013 kicking off with The Secret of Secrets with a new, as yet un-cast, leading man. \u201cIt\u2019s been green-lit. The writer\u2019s room is going full blast, and I see things from time to time. I try to stay out of their way but I have enormous faith that they\u2019re doing a great job,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n While he\u2019s not working on a book at the moment, it would be too confusing while he\u2019s promoting The Secret of Secrets, Brown rises at 4am every day to write. \u201cI like that time of day. Your brain is in that mode where it\u2019s like, \u2018Well, here\u2019s a blank page. Let me just make stuff up and fill your head\u2019. So I like to sort of harness that frame of mind and go to work immediately without checking email or the internet.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t get it right the first time unfortunately and I\u2019ve learned to use the delete key liberally, which is why these books, I hope, read like a rocket. Over the last seven years, I probably wrote a million words to end up with 200,000.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking into the future, as is his habit, does he foresee a world when AI can take over his work and create new Robert Langdon adventures? \u201cI\u2019m happy to report that, at least in my experience, AI is absolutely incapable of outlining a novel. I\u2019ve said, \u2018Write me a description of Prague Castle in the style of Dan Brown\u2019, and I\u2019m like, \u2018I can\u2019t be that bad!\u2019 So either I\u2019m really bad or AI\u2019s bad \u2013 I\u2019m not sure which.\u201d<\/p>\n So Brown truly is inimitable then. Loved by readers, if not the critics, and impossible to replicate.<\/p>\n![\"Dan](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/39\/1200x712\/secondary\/Dan-6423188.jpg?r=1757696173006\" "\\"Dan")
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