A claim that Dan Brown's bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code copied the ideas of two other authors is going before London's High Court.
Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh claim Mr Brown stole the idea that Jesus had a child from their 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.
They are suing publisher Random House, which also published their book. Random House denies the allegation.
A judge is due to hear initial submissions in the trial on Monday.
'Intellectual theft'
The Da Vinci Code won best book at this year's British Book Awards and more than 30 million copies have been sold in about 40 languages.
It has been adapted into a $100m (Ј57m) movie starring Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou and Sir Ian McKellen, which is due to open this year's Cannes film festival.
Mr Baigent and Mr Leigh's non-fiction work The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was also a best-seller.
It dealt with theories that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and that their blood line continued to the present day.
They said Mr Brown's book, which explores similar ideas, constituted "theft of intellectual property".
Mr Baigent and Mr Leigh wrote their book with a third author, Henry Lincoln, who is not taking part in the claim due to ill-health.
(BBC)
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