Phillips, Graham

PERSONAL:

Male.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, radio broadcaster, radio journalist, and researcher. Writer and researcher, 1979—. Has appeared in television shows in Great Britain. Founding editor, Strange Phenomena magazine, Great Britain.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(With Martin Keatman) The Green Stone, Spearman (St. Helier, England), 1983.

(With Martin Keatman) The Eye of Fire, C.W. Daniel (Saffron Walden, England), 1986.

(With Martin Keatman) King Arthur: The True Story, Century (London, England), 1992.

(With Martin Keatman) The Shakespeare Conspiracy, Century (London, England), 1994.

(With Martin Keatman) Robin Hood: The Man behind the Myth, M. O'Mara (London, England), 1995.

The Search for the Grail, Arrow Books (London, England), 1996, published as The Chalice of Magdalene: The Search for the Cup That Held the Blood of Christ, Bear (Rochester, VT), 2004.

Act of God: Tutankhamun, Moses & the Myth of Atlantis, Sidgwick & Jackson (London, England), 1998.

The Marian Conspiracy: The Hidden Truth about the Holy Grail, the Real Father of Christ and the Tomb of the Virgin Mary, Sidgwick & Jackson (London, England), 2000.

The Moses Legacy: In Search of the Origins of God, Sidgwick & Jackson (London, England), 2002, published as Twelve Tribes, Ten Plagues, & the Two Men Who Were Moses, Ulysses Press (Berkeley, CA), 2003.

Atlantis and the Ten Plagues of Egypt: The Secret History Hidden in the Valley of Kings, Bear (Rochester, VT), 2003.

Alexander the Great: Murder in Babylon, Virgin Books (London, England), 2004.

Merlin and the Discovery of Avalon in the New World, Bear (Rochester, VT), 2005.

The Virgin Mary Conspiracy: The True Father of Christ and the Tomb of the Virgin, Bear (Rochester, VT), 2005.

Phillips's books have been translated into nine languages.

SIDELIGHTS:

Through his books and television shows, author and historical detective Graham Phillips has proposed answers to some of the unsolved mysteries in human history. Phillips, who lives in Great Britain, has searched for the Holy Grail, has sought the historical identity of Robin Hood, has offered a scientific explanation for the ten plagues of Ancient Egypt as described in the Old Testament, and has explored the possibility that Atlantis really did exist. Early in his career Phillips worked with coauthor Martin Keatman on a series of books on paranormal phenomena and British history. Since then Phillips has been a solo author and is a popular figure on British television. According to Nicholas Saunders in New Scientist, Phillips's works "play on our passion for storytelling" while offering alternative views. Saunders concluded: "These books … are but one of a myriad ways in which we engage with our ancestors, and, perhaps, they with us."

In King Arthur: The True Story, Phillips and Keatman look carefully at the legend of King Arthur and Camelot, and postulate that historical evidence for the existence of Arthur does indeed exist. They suggest that an obscure fifth-century Welsh king, Owain Ddantgwyn, is the most likely historical basis for the stories of Arthur and his knights. Booklist reviewer Denise Perry Donavin commented favorably on the author's "scholarly, historical sleuthing" in service to Camelot. Phillips considers the historical validity of another Arthurian character in Merlin and the Discovery of Avalon in the New World, where he speculates that Merlin was based on the son of a Roman ruler of Britain in the fifth century. A California Bookwatch reviewer called the book a "'must' for any Arthur/Merlin researchers." Phillips even makes claim to having discovered the object that is most likely the long-sought Holy Grail, which he describes in The Search for the Grail, published in the United States as The Chalice of Magdalene: The Search for the Cup That Held the Blood of Christ,

In addition to his work with characters from popular legend, Phillips also conducts research into the stories that surround a number of historical figures. In Act of God: Tutankhamun, Moses & the Myth of Atlantis, Phillips asserts that noted Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, known for impressing monotheism and worship of the sun god onto Egyptian society during his reign, was not the originator of the idea of monotheism, but instead appropriated the concept from Israelite slaves in the Nile Valley. He also suggests that Akhenaten's sweeping changes in the foundations of Egyptian religious practice were spurred by the eruption of the volcanic island of Thera, which caused a crisis of faith in the Egyptian pantheon. While the Egyptians were inundated with the remnants of the eruption, the Israelites were spared the ravages of the pyroclastic cloud. Thus, according to Phillips, Akhenaten concluded that the God of the Israelites had power that the Egyptian gods did not, and that the powerful single God was worthy of worship over a collection of weak Egyptian gods. "The book is largely conjecture," commented M.D. Magee on the Askwhy! Web site, "woven into a factual base. That is what good pseudo history is. Its aim is to make you wonder and to think," Magee concluded.

Phillips considers other Biblical topics in Twelve Tribes, Ten Plagues, & the Two Men Who Were Moses. There, he speculates that the notorious forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden was the narcotic thorn apple. He suggests that Moses was not an individual but was conflated from two historical figures, the Hebrew priest Kamose and the Egyptian prince Tuthmose. Phillips "writes engagingly, and his book is an interesting stimulus" to reconsideration of long-held beliefs, commented Graham Christian in Library Journal.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 15, 1994, Denise Perry Donavin, review of King Arthur: The True Story, p. 896.

California Bookwatch, April, 2006, review of Merlin and the Discovery of Avalon in the New World.

History Today, July, 1996, Richard Burt, review of The Shakespeare Conspiracy, p. 53.

Library Journal, May 1, 2003, Graham Christian, review of Twelve Tribes, Ten Plagues, & the Two Men Who Were Moses, p. 123.

New Scientist, April 18, 1998, Nicholas Saunders, "Collected Works," p. 48.

ONLINE

Askwhy!,http://www.askwhy.co.uk/ (December 24, 2004), M.D. Magee, "Pseudo-History," review of Act of God: Tutankhamun, Moses & the Myth of Atlantis.

Ghostvillage.com,http://www.ghostvillage.com/ (May 15, 2006), Lee Prosser, review of The Virgin Mary Conspiracy: The True Father of Christ and the Tomb of the Virgin.

Graham Phillips Home Page,http://www.grahamphillips.net (January 2, 2007).*