Christopher John Sansom, born in Edinburgh in 1952, is the author of the much-loved and enormously popular Shardlake novels. He has also written a thriller set in post-Civil War Spain called Winter in Madrid. Sansom, who studied History at the University of Birmingham, later retrained as a solicitor, and practised law for the disadvantaged in Sussex. Reminiscent of both The Name Of The Rose (Vintage Classics) and the Cadfael series (The First Cadfael Omnibus:), his Shardlake novels are historical crime stories set during the reign of Henry VIII. Their protagonist, Matthew Shardlake, is a hunchbacked lawyer, who works on commission for Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Cranmer and Catherine Parr through the course of the series.

Shardlake Series:

• Dissolution (Shardlake)
• Dark Fire (Shardlake)
• Sovereign (Shardlake)
• Revelation (Shardlake)
• Heartstone (Matthew Shardlake 5)

Matthew Shardlake himself is a refreshingly flawed character, whose reason and compassion cut through the cruel and gritty reality of Tudor England. Sansom’s detailed narration brings history vividly to life; the reader can practically smell the streets of 16th century England. With gripping plots that twist and turn their way through monasteries, country homes, bedlam and battle, Shardlake’s reluctant journeys of discovery and enlightenment never fail to entertain and enthrall. Dark Fire (Shardlake) was awarded the 2005 Ellis Peters Historical Dagger by the Crime Writers’ Association, and it isn’t difficult to see why; Sansom’s novels are of the highest quality as works of literature, as historical novels, and as good old-fashioned whodunits.