From his debut in Dissolution, when we watch him attempt to reconcile an intellectual sympathy for Cromwell's reformation with revulsion at the acts undertaken in its name, to his latest outing in Heartstone, where he finds himself in Portsmouth on the eve of a war with France which he can neither understand nor approve, Shardlake is a thoughtful, nuanced presence in a sea of religious zealotry, ignorance and superstition; of his time, but not blinkered by it. The reader is left frustrated by two hastily resolved narratives that, like the twins, have certain organs in common but not a heart.AH, The Darkness of Wallis Simpson, by Rose Tremain (Vintage, £7.99), These 12 short stories are marvellous acts of imagination that effortlessly fulfil the succinct demands of the genre. That's what's so interesting about writing about the period: to comprehend it, you have to work your way into a totally different worldview. Winter in Madrid is a spy novel written by C. J. Sansom.The setting is just after the Spanish Civil War in 1940. In the title story, a dying Wallis Simpson clutches a priceless bracelet given to her by the "little man" whose identity she has completely forgotten and whose love for her changed British history. While General Franco considers whether to abandon his position of neutrality and join forces with Hitler, monarchists, falangists, communists, disillusioned public schoolboys and opportunists of all persuasions jockey for position in a lethal game where allegiances change overnight and nothing is what it seems. This book is the literary equivalent of Alison Jackson's fake documentaries of Charles and Camilla or Sven and Becks. He has also written Winter in Madrid, a thriller set in Spain in 1940 in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and Dominion, an alternate history novel set in a Britain following a fictional Axis victory in World War II. A trained annalist, his research for each novel has been rigorous. The barriers that the community has built around itself are crumbling: while for much of the book the monastery is cut off from the world, it is the weather, not the walls, that locks the suspects in. Read our Telegraph Travel expert guide to a weekend in Madrid, including the best places to stay, eat, and drink as well as the top things to do. ", Sansom has every reason to feel confident in his interpretation. And I'll also say if I've discovered anything. "The way I see it developing, if I'm spared, is one more Shardlake novel under Henry," Sansom says. The crookbacked lawyer whose talent for cutting through Tudor murk sees him pressed, by turns, into the service of Thomas Cromwell, Archbishop Cranmer and finally Henry VIII's last queen, Catherine Parr, is our man on the inside. "After that, I've one idea for Edward's reign, on the huge social revolt in Norfolk in 1549. Set in the summer of 1549, the story deals with the investigation of a murder in Norfolk.Matthew Shardlake is entrusted by Princess Elizabeth, later Elizabeth I, to investigate the murder of the wife of a distant relative of hers. That's it. If your itinerary for winter in Madrid includes December 31, you’re in luck. ", Like Umberto Eco's historical whodunit The Name of the Rose, of which Sansom is an admirer, Dissolution – set 200 years later in the bitter winter of 1537 – is a classic closed-setting mystery. the sights, the voices, the very smell of this turbulent age seem to rise from the page. Heartstone brings Shardlake – a man shaped and buffeted by Henry VIII's reign – to within two years of his monarch's death. `Een eersteklas thriller, die zich afspeelt aan de dampende zelfkant van de swingende jaren zestig... Het iconische jaar 1968 zal nooit meer hetzelfde lijken.' "He was a bit wet, really; I had to get rid of him. 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. Awards. The source code for the WIKI 2 extension is being checked by specialists of the Mozilla Foundation, Google, and Apple. A novel is a lot of work; a first novel most of all. Join the crowds in Puerta del Sol to watch the clock strike midnight and ring in the new year with thousands of new friends. First, the law was my profession: I find legal practice endlessly interesting. C. J. SANSOM was educated at Birmingham University, where he took a BA and then a PhD in history. The book is purposely set in Madrid, where Francisco Franco resided. And the more I read about it, the more I realised how like the 20th century it was in its anxiety and uncertainty, even though people thought so differently then. Shopping becomes both pleasant and profitable. The Tudor cast of characters has been written about and picked over for centuries; was there anything new to write about them? ", Sansom's publishers, mindful of the clamouring for a second Shardlake, published Dark Fire ahead of Winter in Madrid; it won the 2005 Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger. So the point was to overrule the north, tie it firmly in to Tudor England. A vivid and haunting depiction of wartime Spain, Winter in Madrid is an intimate and riveting tale that offers a remarkable sense of history unfolding and the profound impact of impossible choices. I like to get away from that." While wintertime in Madrid sees lower temperatures and increased precipitation (usually in the form of rain—snow in the city itself is rare) in the winter months, the holiday magic throughout the city makes this time of year worth considering for a visit. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Published in 2003, Dissolution was an immediate bestseller: Inspector Morse creator Colin Dexter called it "extraordinarily impressive", while Sansom's heroine PD James described it as "remarkable . "The librarian shows Shardlake a copy of Aristotle's lost work on comedy, and says 'Old Italian forgery, of course'. If I were to talk today with someone from the 16th century, they'd think I was mad, and probably heretical. In September 1940, the Spanish Civil War is over and Madrid lies in ruins while the Germans continue their march through Europe. "I soon realised Mark wasn't going to be a successful character," Sansom confesses. Tombland is a historical mystery novel by British author C. J. Sansom.It is the seventh entry in the Matthew Shardlake Series, following 2014's Lamentation. ", Born in 1952, Christopher John Sansom grew up in Edinburgh, the only child of an English father and a Scottish mother. 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