C. J. Sansom 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 (lawyer). He practiced for a while in Sussex as a lawyer
for the disadvantaged, then he quit in order to work full-time as a writer.
Dark Fire won the 2005 CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger and
Sansom was "Very Highly Commended" in the 2007 CWA Dagger in the Library award,
for the Shardlake series.
He has no fixed plan for the Shardlake
series, saying, "I plan the books one by one. I don't like tying myself down too
much where future plans are concerned. I have an idea - only an idea - that
having done a "closed setting" mystery with Dissolution, a "quest" with
Dark Fire, a 'political thriller' with Sovereign, and now a serial
killer novel with Revelation which I am working on, I might do a
courtroom drama next - Shardlake is a lawyer after all."
The BBC have commissioned an adaptation of Dissolution with the actor
Kenneth Branagh set to star as Shardlake. The rest of the Shardlake books are
expected to follow.
Bibliography Publication dates based on first publication in the UK
Matthew Shardlake series Dissolution (2003) Dark Fire (2004) Sovereign (2006) Revelation (2008)
Standalone Winter in Madrid (2006)
This biography was last updated on 01/03/2008.
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