C. J. Sansom

Christopher Sansom
Born	1952 Edinburgh, Scotland
Occupation	Author
Nationality	British
Genres	Mainly Historical fiction
Notable work(s)	Shardlake Series

Christopher John "C.J." Sansom is a British writer of crime novels. He was born in 1952 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was educated at the University of Birmingham, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history.^[1] 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 quitting in order to work full-time as a writer. He currently lives in Sussex.^[2]

Work

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, who is assisted in his adventures by Mark Poer and then Jack Barak. Shardlake works on commission initially from Thomas Cromwell in Dissolution and Dark Fire, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in Sovereign and Revelation and Queen Catherine Parr in Heartstone.

He has also written Winter in Madrid, a thriller set in Spain in 1940 in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.

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.^[3]

Bibliography

Matthew Shardlake Series

• Sansom, C.J. (2003). Dissolution. London: Macmillan. ISBN 1-4050-0542-4. 
• Sansom, C.J. (2004). Dark Fire. London: Macmillan. ISBN 1-4050-0544-0. 
• Sansom, C.J. (2006). Sovereign. London: Macmillan. ISBN 1-4050-0548-9. 
• Sansom, C.J. (2008). Revelation. London: Macmillan. ISBN 1-4050-9272-2. 
• Sansom, C.J. (2010). Heartstone. London: Mantle. ISBN 1-4050-9273-4. 

Other Novels

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

Reviews

• Schoolboy rivalries in the Spanish civil war A review of Winter in Madrid, in Telegraph, 26.2.2006
• A wherry across the Thames A review of Dark Fire, by Stella Duffy, in The Guardian, 6.11.2004
• Spanish Civil War, stripped of Hemingway's romance A review of Winter in Madrid, by Katherine Bailey, in The Philadelphia Enquirer, 20.1.2008
• Revelation A review of "Revelation", by Christina Hardyment, in Times Online, 29.3.2008
• Romanttinen vakoojatarina A review of Finnish translated Winter in Madrid, by Jari Olavi Hiltunen, in Opettaja 21.5.2010

References

1. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/nov/15/cj-sansom-interview
2. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/nov/15/cj-sansom-interview
3. ^ the CWA Dagger in the Library 2007 – C.J. Sansom shortlisted for the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award.

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'The Guardian Review, Saturday, 13 November 2010

Persondata
Name	Sansom, C. J.
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1952
Place of birth	Edinburgh, Scotland
Date of death
Place of death