Da Vinci Code trial sees book sales rocket

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London (dpa) - The London trial involving Dan Brown's blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code has seen sales of the book rocket, according to a literary magazine Thursday.

Similarly, copies of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, whose authors claim that Brown stole their plot, were flying off the shelves.

Both books are published by Random House.

Ever since the court case started last week, with a rare public appearance of the notoriously shy Brown, sales of the Da Vinci Code reached four million copies in Britain, said Giles Elliott of Bookseller Magazine.

But the trial has also revived interest in the non-fiction work on which Brown allegedly based his plot, with sales up by 745 per cent in Britain alone.

Although still dwarfed by the success of the Da Vinci Code, this meant that 3,000 copies a week of the Holy Blood were sold, compared with 350 previously.

Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, the authors of Holy Blood, are suing Random House, claiming The Da Vinci Code was an infringement of their copyright.

The trial, which started on February 27, is expected to last another week.