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Ken Follett offers proceeds of book sales to French cathedral restoration fund

By March 11, 2021Culture, News

Ken Follett, author of The Pillars of the Earth, has offered to donate the proceeds from his latest book to a French cathedral restoration fund.

The Guardian reports that Follet is donating £127,000 towards the fund to save the Saint-Samson de Dol-de-Bretagne cathedral in Brittany.

The donation comes from the sales of his latest book Notre-Dame: a Short History of the Meaning of Cathedrals, which Follet wrote following the devastating fire in April 2019.

The funds will go to the French Fondation du Patrimoine, as part of £2m restoration costs for the Brittany cathedral built in 1840.

Follet explained to the French media that he never wanted to profit from the Notre Dame fire: “Also, these ancient buildings have given me enormous pleasure over the years,” he said. “They inspired me to write Pillars of the Earth, my most-read book.”

The cathedral in need of repair, Saint-Samson de Dol-de-Bretagne, is situated in Ille-et-Vilaine, east of Saint-Malo.

The cathedral has had quite a history since it was constructed in honour of a Welsh bishop monk, Saint Samson. A cathedral was built in Dol, the religious capital of Brittany, but was destroyed in 1014 by Vikings, and another cathedral was built in its place.

The cathedral was burnt down in 1203 by the English King John, however after fearing for his immortal soul he decided to help finance its rebuilding. It then became a ‘Temple of Reason’ after the revolution, then transformed into stables.

Follett chose to help fund the restoration of this particular cathedral because “It’s not very far from me in England. I want to visit the cathedral, I want to see how they spent this money to restore it, so it’s convenient not to be too far away,” he said.

The mayor of Dol-de-Bretagne, Denis Rapinel, was delighted with Follet’s donation, “It’s a bit like Christmas in March with something that has fallen from the sky. The cathedral is a symbolic building that contributes to Dol’s fame, but it’s an important burden for a small town of 6,000 inhabitants,” he said.

“Ken Follett’s generosity will help speed up the pace of the work. We were able to finance between €150,000-€200,000 a year so it means we can bring forward the completion of the works by about a year.”

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