The road to Jerusalem

Jan Oskar Sverre Lucien Henri Guillou is a Swedish author and journalist. Among his books are a series of spy fiction novels about a spy named Carl Hamilton, and a trilogy of historical fiction novels about a Knight Templar, Arn Magnusson. He is the owner of one of the largest publishing companies... in Sweden, Piratförlaget , together with Liza Marklund and his wife, publisher Ann-Marie Skarp. Guillou's fame in Sweden was established during his time as an investigative journalist. In 1973, he and co-reporter Peter Bratt exposed a secret intelligence organization in Sweden, Informationsbyrån . He is still active within journalism as a column writer for the Swedish evening tabloid Aftonbladet. In October 2009, the tabloid Expressen accused Guillou of having been active as an agent of the Soviet spy organization KGB between 1967 and 1972. Jan Guillou confirmed he had a series of contacts with KGB representatives during this period, he also admits to having received payments from KGB, but maintains that his purpose was to collect information for his journalistic work.
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The Knight Templar is a series of books about the fictional character of Arn Magnusson. The series is written by Swedish author and journalist Jan Guillou. After finishing the Coq Rouge series, Guillou wrote a trilogy about Arn Magnusson, a fictional Swedish character from the Middle Ages who was... forced to become a Knight Templar. The series is an account of the life of Arn, a person who becomes witness as well as catalyst to many important historical events, both in his homeland of Götaland, Sweden and in the crusader states. The trilogy, dubbed the Crusades trilogy, consists of the following books: Guillou also wrote a follow-up novel, The Heritage of Arn . In Guillou's universe Birger Jarl, the founder of Stockholm, is fictionalized to be the grandson of Arn Magnusson. Two films based on the books have been produced. The first film in the series, Arn – The Knight Templar, premiered in the theaters of Sweden in Christmas 2007. Its plot loosely follows the first two volumes of the trilogy. The second film, Arn – The Kingdom at Road's End, followed in 2008. Arn was born in Arnäs, Västergötland in 1150.
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