Christopher John Sansom (9 December 1952 – 27 April 2024) was a British writer of historical crime novels, best known for his Matthew Shardlake series. He also wrote the spy novel '' Winter in Madrid'' and the alternate history novel ''

Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...

''. He won numerous book awards, including the 2005 Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the

Sidewise Award for Alternate History The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize the best alternate history stories and novels of the year. Overview The awards take their name from the 1934 short story " Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster, in w ...

in 2013 and the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2022. ''

Shardlake The ''Shardlake series'' is a series of historical mystery novels by C. J. Sansom, set in 16th century Tudor period, Tudor England. The series features barrister Matthew Shardlake, who, while navigating the religious reforms of Henry VIII of Engl ...

'', a television series based on Sansom's novel '' Dissolution'', started streaming on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

less than a week after his death.

Early life

Christopher John Sansom was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

on 9 December 1952, the only son of Trevor Sansom. He attended

George Watson's College George Watson's College is a co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Scotland, situated on Colinton Road, in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh. It was first established as a Scottish education in the eighteenth ...

but left the school with no qualifications. Sansom wrote about the bullying he suffered there. Subsequently he was educated at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

, where he obtained 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 Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

as a lawyer for the disadvantaged, before leaving the legal profession to become a full-time writer. Sansom lived in Sussex.

Work

Sansom came to prominence with the

Shardlake series The ''Shardlake series'' is a series of historical mystery novels by C. J. Sansom, set in 16th century Tudor period, Tudor England. The series features barrister Matthew Shardlake, who, while navigating the religious reforms of Henry VIII of Engl ...

, his

historical mystery The historical mystery or historical whodunit is a subgenre of two literary genres, historical fiction and mystery fiction. These works are set in a time period considered historical from the author's perspective, and the central plot involves th ...

series set in the reign of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

in the 16th century. The series' main character is the

hunchback Kyphosis () is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the spine as it occurs in the thoracic and sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine is called lordosis. It can ...

ed 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 Thomas Cromwell (; – 28 July 1540) was an English statesman and lawyer who served as List of English chief ministers, chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false cha ...

in '' Dissolution'' and '' Dark Fire'', then

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a theologian, leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He is honoured as a Oxford Martyrs, martyr ...

in ''

Sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title that can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to ...

'' and ''

Revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...

'',

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

Catherine Parr Catherine Parr ( – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and Ireland as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 12 July 1543 until Henry's death on 28 January 1547. Catherine was the final queen consort o ...

in '' Heartstone'' and ''

Lamentation A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...

'' and finally Princess Elizabeth in '' Tombland''. ''Dark Fire'' won the 2005 Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger. After ''Dark Fire'' was published, a ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' review commented: "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 novel ''Tombland'' (published in 2018), Shardlake works as a lawyer in the service of Henry's younger daughter, Lady Elizabeth, investigating a murder during the time of

Kett's Rebellion Kett's Rebellion was a revolt in the English county of Norfolk during the reign of Edward VI, largely in response to the enclosure of land. It began at Wymondham on 8 July 1549 with a group of rebels destroying fences that had been put up by wealt ...

in Norfolk. According to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', "''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 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

in September 2012, and ''Revelation'' in March 2017. The author's death occurred less than a week before the television series based on ''Dissolution'' was to start streaming on the

network. Sansom explained his reasons for making his protagonist an attorney, in an interview with ''

''.

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 planned 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 The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

and ''

'', an

alternative history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...

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 The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) is a specialist authors' organisation in the United Kingdom, most notable for its "Dagger" awards for the best crime writing of the year, and the Diamond Dagger awarded to an author for lifetime achievement. ...

(CWA). Sansom himself was "Very Highly Commended" in the 2007 CWA

Dagger in the Library The Dagger in the Library (Golden Handcuffs in 1992–1994) is an annual award given by the British Crime Writers' Association to a particular "living author who has given the most pleasure to readers". Yearly shortlists are drawn up of the ten auth ...

award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An award may be d ...

, for the Shardlake series. ''Dominion'' won the

in 2013. In 2022, Sansom received the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the CWA.

Political views

Sansom was an outspoken opponent of

Scottish nationalism Scottish nationalism promotes the idea that the Scottish people form a cohesive nation and Scottish national identity, national identity. Scottish nationalism began to shape from 1853 with the National Association for the Vindication of Scottis ...

. In the afterword to his alternate history novel ''Dominion'' (in which the Scottish National Party is portrayed as collaborating with Nazi Germany), he denounced "the empty populist bonhomie of

Alex Salmond Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond ( ; 31 December 1954 – 12 October 2024) was a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure in the Scottish nationalist movement, he was Leader of the Sc ...

", and said that the Scottish independence campaign was "creating a new culture of hostility and bitterness on both sides of the Border". Sansom said of the SNP, "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." Sansom donated £24,000 to the Better Together campaign that opposed independence in the

2014 Scottish independence referendum A independence referendum, referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" or ...

Death

In 2012, he was diagnosed with

multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibody, antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone ...

(cancer in bone marrow cells). He died from the cancer at a hospice near his home in Brighton on 27 April 2024, at the age of 71.

Bibliography

Matthew Shardlake series

* * * * * * *

Other novels

* *

References

External links

* * *
Schoolboy rivalries in the Spanish civil war
A review of ''Winter in Madrid,'' in ''Telegraph'', 26 February 2006

A review of ''Dark Fire'', by Stella Duffy, in ''

'', 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 ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'', 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 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sansom, C. J. 1952 births 2024 deaths 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British novelists Alumni of the University of Birmingham British historical novelists British male novelists British mystery writers British solicitors Cartier Diamond Dagger winners People educated at George Watson's College Sidewise Award winners Writers from Edinburgh Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period Writers of historical mysteries