THE Bishop of Durham has dismissed the international best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code as a "great thriller" but a "lousy history".

The book, which questions the origins of Christianity, has sold more than seven million copies worldwide and is to be made into a film starring Tom Hanks.

But in his Christmas message, Dr Tom Wright said that though he enjoyed the story, the conspiracy theory about Jesus upon which it is based was laughable.

The book, by Dan Brown, claims Christ did not die on the cross but married Mary Magdalene and had a family.

"Conspiracy theories are always fun," he said. "Fun to invent, fun to read, fun to fantasise about.

"Dan Brown is the best writer I've come across in the genre, but anyone who knows anything about 1st Century history will see that his underlying material is laughable.

"Truth is sometimes a bit bleak and harsh by comparison. That's part of the point - real life sometimes is bleak and harsh."

Dr Wright said early Christian manuscripts and New Testament letters provided "astonishingly good" evidence of Jesus and the origins of Christianity.

"Historical research shows that they present a thoroughly credible picture of Jesus, with all sorts of incidental details that fit the time when he lived, and don't fit the world of later legend," he said.

Dr Wright said The Da Vinci Code was one in a long line of incredible theories, following a series of claims in the 1990s - including one claim that Jesus had been divorced and that the Dead Sea Scrolls code had been cracked.