The BBC have commissioned an adaptation of Dissolution with the actor Kenneth Branagh set to star as Shardlake. Shardlake works on commission initially from Thomas Cromwell in Dissolution and Dark Fire and then Thomas Cranmer in Sovereign and Revelation. He came to prominence with his series set in the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century, whose main character is the hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake. He practised for a while in Sussex as a lawyer for the disadvantaged, before quitting in order to work full-time as a writer. After working in a variety of jobs, he decided to retrain as a solicitor.

He was born in 1952 and was educated at the University of Birmingham, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history. Continue the gripping historical series with Lamentation and Tombland.Christopher John 'C.J.' Sansom is an English writer of crime novels. Ī bestselling phenomenon, the Shardlake series is perfect for fans of Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light. Events will converge on board one of the King's great warships, primed for battle in Portsmouth harbour. The emerging mysteries around the young ward, and the events that destroyed Ellen's family nineteen years before, involve Shardlake in reunions both with an old friend and an old enemy close to the throne. Once arrived, Shardlake and Barak find themselves in a city preparing to become a war zone and Shardlake takes the opportunity to also investigate the mysterious past of Ellen Fettiplace, a young woman incarcerated in the Bedlam. Asked to investigate claims of 'monstrous wrongs' committed against a young ward of the court, which have already involved one mysterious death, Shardlake and his assistant Barak journey to Portsmouth. Meanwhile Matthew Shardlake is given an intriguing legal case by an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr. The King has debased the currency to pay for the war, and England is in the grip of soaring inflation and economic crisis. As the English fleet gathers at Portsmouth, the country raises the largest militia army it has ever seen. Henry VIII's invasion of France has gone badly wrong, and a massive French fleet is preparing to sail across the Channel. Like Hilary Mantel, he produces densely textured historical novels that absorb their readers in another time' - Andrew Taylor, SpectatorĮngland, 1545: England is at war. 'Sansom has the trick of writing an enthralling narrative. 'When it comes to intriguing Tudor-based narratives, Hilary Mantel has a serious rival' - Sunday Times Sansom's number one bestselling Shardlake series, for fans of Hilary Mantel and Philippa Gregory.

Sansom's fifth spellbinding mystery in C.

Heartstone cj sansom summary