"Inferno" Author Dan Brown Chats New Book, Relaxation Techniques And His Critics

"A lot has been made about me, I do hang upside down. It's not really for writer's block, I don't tend to suffer writer's block. I am the opposite problem, I just - have too much material. I do hang upside down, I find that it oxygenates the brain, it's great for your spine if you sit many hours and also lets you see the world in a slightly new light," he said.Brown also said that his latest release, which hit stores last week, gave him a chance to write about literature.

Whilst previous titles such as the "The Da Vinci Code" celebrated the fine arts, this time it was 14th century Italian poet Dante Alighieri who inspired Brown.

''I thought it would be a terrific very fertile ground for Langdon,'' Brown said.

Adding: ''When I was researching Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons I was entrenched in Church history and came to understand how much influence Dante had on the Christian vision of hell, and I became absolutely fascinated with it.''

Brown's book sees the return of fictional symbologist Robert Langdon. This time theHarvard professor wakes up in Italy suffering from memory loss and on a mission to stop evil geneticist Bertrand Zobrist.

In order to achieve his goal, Langdon has to follow a trail linked to Dante and his creation 'Divine Comedy'.

Speaking of Langdon's latest adversary, Brown said: "The most interesting villain is the one who is doing the wrong things for the right reason. I love writing in the grey area. You don't want a villain who is just evil, I mean my goal here was that you look at the graphs in the book, you hear some of the science in the book and you say 'wow, this Zobist character, this Dante fanatic, is terrifying. I don't like what he's doing but I kind of get his point."

"Inferno" borrows its title from Dante's poem by the same name, which in part depicts hell. Brown insists unlike previous works this time around his story doesn't focus on the church.

"Clearly I mean some of my books have been very centred on the Catholic Church. This one is not. I think the Vatican is mentioned once maybe, but you're right. It's not a particularly flattering commentary. I was very concerned that in a world where overpopulation is such an issue, where people like the World Health Organizationare trying to educate about contraception, that sort of thing, that the church, the Vatican, which is so influential and so powerful would stand up and say somehow God is against contraception. I just think it's a dangerous stance and I just said so."

Despite the huge presale figures and tips that Inferno will become the biggest-selling book of the year, Brown is not always well received by the critics, particularly in the United Kingdom:

"We're all trained to say 'I don't read my reviews, it doesn't hurt'. I mean of course - you wish everybody loved what you do. That's just not the way it works," the author explains. "You know I've said before, I write the book that I would wanna read. When you're a writer or a painter, a musician you have your own taste. That's all you have. So I write a book to my taste and I hope others share my taste. You know if a critic doesn't share my taste, there is not much I can do about it."

Early reviews for "Inferno" have labelled it a "clunky" page-turner, which some critics say reads more like a Hollywood film script at times than a novel.

But it doesn't seem to shy away the author's legions of fans. Sales of the book reached the highest level of customer pre-orders at retailer Waterstones in the UK since the release of Harry Potter author JK Rowling's adult fiction "The Casual Vacancy" last year. And "Inferno'" may well follow in the footstep's of its predecessors "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons", both of which have been turned into blockbuster movies.