C. J. Sansom

C. J. Sansom
Born	(1952-12-09)9 December 1952 Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	27 April 2024(2024-04-27) (aged 71)
Occupation	Author, solicitor
Genre	Historical fiction, crime fiction
Notable works	Shardlake series
Notable awards	Sidewise Award
Website
pages.panmacmillan.com/c-j-sansom

Christopher John Sansom (9 December 1952 – 27 April 2024) was a British writer of historical crime novels, best known for his Matthew Shardlake series.

Background

Christopher John Sansom was born in Edinburgh on 9 December 1952. He attended George Watson's College in that city, but left the school with no qualifications. Sansom wrote about the bullying he suffered there. Subsequently he was educated at the University of Birmingham, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he decided to retrain as a solicitor. He practised in Sussex as a lawyer for the disadvantaged, before leaving the legal profession to become a full-time writer.

Sansom lived in Sussex. In 2012, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He died on 27 April 2024, at the age of 71.

Work

Sansom came to prominence with the Shardlake series, his historical mystery series set in the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century. The series' main character is the hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake, who is assisted in his adventures by Mark Poer, then Jack Barak and also Nicholas Overton. Shardlake works on commission initially from Thomas Cromwell in Dissolution and Dark Fire, then Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in Sovereign and Revelation, Queen Catherine Parr in Heartstone and Lamentation and finally Princess Elizabeth in Tombland. Dark Fire won the 2005 Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger.

After Dark Fire was published, a Sunday Times review made this comment: "Historical crime fiction is sometimes little more than a modern adventure in fancy dress. Not so the novels of CJ Sansom, whose magnificent books set in the reign of Henry VIII bring to life the sounds and smells of Tudor England..."

In the books, Shardlake works as a lawyer in the service of Henry's younger daughter, Lady Elizabeth, in the novel Tombland (published in 2018), investigating a murder during the time of Kett's Rebellion in Norfolk. "Tombland is more of a grand historical epic than a tightly packed whodunnit, like some of the earlier novels; but 800 pages in Shardlake’s company will always fly by". Dissolution was adapted in 10 episodes for BBC Radio 4 in September 2012, and Revelation in March 2017. The author's death occurred less than a week before the television version of Dissolution was to start streaming on the Disney+network.

Sansom explained his reasons for making his protagonist a barrister, in an interview with The Guardian.

"I thought it made sense for Shardlake to be a lawyer for a number of reasons. First, the law was my profession: I find legal practice endlessly interesting. Second, it existed then and now, so it provides a point of contact for readers. And third, it's democratic: it offers a way into any number of mysteries, and puts Shardlake in the way of an endless variety of characters."

Sansom also said that he plans to write further Shardlake novels taking the lawyer into the reign of Elizabeth I.

Sansom also wrote Winter in Madrid, a thriller set in Spain in 1940 in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and Dominion, an alternate history novel set in a Britain following a fictional Axis victory in World War II. About the latter novel, a Guardian review called the premise "an invented mid-20th century Britain that has the intricate detail and delineation of JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth, though thankfully described in better prose".

Awards

Dark Fire won the 2005 Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, awarded by the Crime Writers' Association (CWA). Sansom himself was "Very Highly Commended" in the 2007 CWA Dagger in the Library award, for the Shardlake series. Dominion won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. In 2022, Sansom received the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the CWA.

Politics

Sansom was born in Scotland and by his teens, had developed "socialist political leanings". He strongly opposed Scottish independence and described the prospect as "literally heartbreaking". In his 2012 novel Dominion, his depiction of an alternative history in which Germany wins the Second World War, the Scottish National Party collaborates with the British Nazi state. He stated, "A party which is often referred to by its members, as the SNP is, as the National Movement should send a chill down the spine of anyone who remembers what those words have often meant in Europe". He also pointed out that in real life, some of the party's members then had fascist sympathies.

Sansom went on to describe the party as "deeply dangerous, with no politics in the conventional sense, believing only in the old dream that the unleashing of 'national spirit' and 'national pride' can solve a country's problems". He donated £164,000 to the Better Together group which campaigned for a "no" vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. He also said that the Yes Scotland campaign had "dubious" financial backing.

Bibliography

Matthew Shardlake Series

• Sansom, C.J. (2003). Dissolution (hardback 1st ed.). London: Macmillan. ISBN 9780670032037.
• Sansom, C.J. (2004). Dark Fire (hardcover 1st ed.). London: Macmillan. ISBN 9781405005449.
• Sansom, C.J. (2006). Sovereign. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-3304-3608-2.
• Sansom, C.J. (2008). Revelation. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-3304-47102.
• Sansom, C.J. (2010). Heartstone. London: Mantle. ISBN 978-1405092739.
• Sansom, C.J. (2014). Lamentation. London: Mantle. ISBN 978-1447260257.
• Sansom, C.J. (2018). Tombland. London: Mantle. ISBN 978-1447284482.

Other novels

• Sansom, C.J. (2006). Winter in Madrid. London: Macmillan. ISBN 1-4050-0546-7.
• Sansom, C.J. (2012). Dominion. London: Mantle. ISBN 978-0230744165.

External links

• Schoolboy rivalries in the Spanish civil war A review of Winter in Madrid, in Telegraph, 26 February 2006
• A wherry across the Thames A review of Dark Fire, by Stella Duffy, in The Guardian, 6 November 2004
• Spanish Civil War, stripped of Hemingway's romance A review of Winter in Madrid, by Katherine Bailey, in The Philadelphia Inquirer, 20 January 2008
• Revelation A review of "Revelation", by Peter Kemp, in The Sunday Times, 27 April 2008
• Romanttinen vakoojatarina A review of Finnish-translated Winter in Madrid, by Jari Olavi Hiltunen, in Opettaja 21 May 2010
• Dominion A review of Dominion, in Upcoming4.me 12 July 2013
• Reviews & excerpts of Winter in Madrid, Revelation and Dominion at BookBrowse 2008–2014