Smash hit

"I recall being impressed by Campbell's open-minded and unthreatening delivery, especially when he spoke about controversial topics like myths and untruths in religion," Brown wrote. "I recall thinking that I wanted my character Robert Langdon to have this same open-minded tone."

It was only after writing his next book, Deception Point, which does not feature Langdon, that Brown realised how much the character meant to him, bringing him back to life for The Da Vinci Code, a page-turning thriller in which Langdon solves a series of clues left by a murdered curator from the Louvre.

"Angels & Demons is the first Robert Langdon novel - The Da Vinci Code was the second. It was a real joy for me to write, and a breakthrough in terms 'of finding my own style (although I can only say that with hindsight)," Brown said.

"I intend to make Robert Langdon my primary character for years to come. His expertise in symbology and iconography affords him the luxury of potentially limitless adventures in exotic locales. It was also a book in which Blythe could be more involved, as she has a great love of art and art history."

In the statement, Brown says that he spends about two years on each novel, doing a year or so of research in which he tries to find the "big idea" for each book, and then a year holed away at his home in New Hampshire producing endless drafts and cutting ruthlessly away at "the fat" to produce the page-turners for which he is famous.

It was not until that he had written the synopsis for The Da Vinci Code - sitting on a deck-chair in the laundry room of his parents' house using an ironing board as a desk - that he even picked up The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail.

Although he mentions the book in his novel and gives it credit for bringing to public attention the theory that Jesus Christ's bloodline may have lived on through a relationship with Mary Magdalene, Brown denies that it was even a particularly important source.

Brown admits that one of the characters in the novel, Sir Leigh Teabing, is based on an anagram of the two authors, Baigent and Leigh, who are suing his publishers, Random House. But he says that he invented the character at a relatively late stage and intended to use the character's name as one of the clues in the book - L Baigent, he said, was itself an anagram of "Begin at L". In the end, he did not include that clue in his novel.

The author gives little away as to his next Langdon novel, except to say that it is set within the confines of another secret society - the Freemasons.

"I have asked myself why all this clandestine material interests me. At a fundamental level my interest in secret societies came from growing up in New England, surrounded by the clandestine clubs of Ivy League universities, the Masonic lodges of the Founding Fathers, and the hidden hallways of early government power," Brown wrote.

"I see New England as having a long tradition of elite private clubs, fraternities, and secrecy -indeed, my third Robert Langdon novel (a work in progress) is set within the Masons. I have always found the concept of secret societies, codes, and means of communication fascinating.

"In my youth I was very aware of the Skull & Bones club at Yale. I had good friends who were members of Harvard's secret "finals" clubs. In the town where I grew up, there was a Masonic lodge, and nobody could (or would) tell me what happened behind those closed doors. All of this secrecy captivated me as a young man."

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