‘It's difficult, perhaps impossible, to write a character well in the past who is not a projection back of modern sensibilities. My defence would be that the 16th century was the time when rational, sceptical inquiry was beginning. This was the age of the humanists: we're leaving medieval thought patterns behind. I'm not saying a man like Shardlake did exist then, but he could have, when even 20 years earlier he couldn't. That's enough for me...
I find legal practice endlessly interesting. It existed then and now, so it provides a point of contact for readers. And it offers a way into any number of mysteries, and puts Shardlake in the way of an endless variety of characters.'
C J Sansom, who died in April and was the author of the seven-volume Shardlake series, Dissolution, Dark Fire, Sovereign, Revelation, Heartstone, Lamentation and Tombland, and Dominion and Winter in Madrid, in the Guardian.
'A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped self-addressed envelope, big enough to send the manuscript back in. This is too much of a temptation for the editor.'
September 2024
'A projection back of modern sensibilities'
‘It's difficult, perhaps impossible, to write a character well in the past who is not a projection back of modern sensibilities. My defence would be that the 16th century was the time when rational, sceptical inquiry was beginning. This was the age of the humanists: we're leaving medieval thought patterns behind. I'm not saying a man like Shardlake did exist then, but he could have, when even 20 years earlier he couldn't. That's enough for me...
I find legal practice endlessly interesting. It existed then and now, so it provides a point of contact for readers. And it offers a way into any number of mysteries, and puts Shardlake in the way of an endless variety of characters.'
C J Sansom, who died in April and was the author of the seven-volume Shardlake series, Dissolution, Dark Fire, Sovereign, Revelation, Heartstone, Lamentation and Tombland, and Dominion and Winter in Madrid, in the Guardian.