Obituary: Shardlake author and how it all began in Sussex

Chris lived in Brighton and won legions of fans after introducing readers to lawyer Matthew Shardlake with his first novel, Dissolution, published 21 years ago.

He wrote six further novels featuring Shardlake and two standalone historical novels, Winter in Madrid and Dominion, which were also huge bestsellers.

Maria Rejt, longtime editor and publisher, said: "An intensely private person, Chris wished from the very start only to be published quietly and without fanfare. But he always took immense pleasure in the public’s enthusiastic responses to his novels and worked tirelessly on each book, never wanting to disappoint a single reader.

"He was working on his new Shardlake novel, Ratcliff, when he died but his worsening health made progress painfully slow: his meticulous historical research and his writing were always so important to him. I shall miss him hugely, not only as a wonderfully talented writer who gave joy to millions, but as a dear friend of enormous compassion and integrity."

It was a meeting in Worthing that may have given Chris his big break. Author Wendy Greene recalls him attending the West Sussex Writers' Club Day for Writers at Northbrook College in 1998 and says that is how it all began.

Wendy said: "He was just another unpublished writer looking for a publisher. One of the workshops was run by a literary agent and Chris had a long conversation with the speaker, which led to them putting him on to a different agent.

"Shortly after the event, Chris wrote to me saying he now had a publisher and a three-book deal. He was an instant success but kindly came back to the Writers' Club at the time I was chairman and gave an interesting talk about his background and books. I don't think many people realise how one conversation in Worthing started it all."

Pan Macmillan announced his death, on Saturday, April 27, with immense sadness. The publisher said there are more than three million copies of his novels in print and Chris won many accolades for his work, including most recently the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for his outstanding contribution to the genre.

Lucy Hale, managing director, said: "We are immensely saddened to hear of Chris’s death: it has been our profound privilege and pleasure to be Chris’s publisher from the very beginning, and Pan Macmillan will continue to celebrate him and introduce many more readers to his extraordinary body of work for many years to come. We are all thinking of his friends at this very difficult time."

The 'extraordinarily strange coincidence' that Chris died just days before a new generation of fans will meet Matthew Shardlake, Barak and Guy for the first time through the Disney+ adaptation of Dissolution when it is released on Wednesday, May 1, was pointed out by his agent Antony Topping.

Antony said: "Chris did not seek the limelight, preferring to be known through his novels, and so in comparison with his fame and reputation relatively few people were lucky enough to know the person behind the work.

"He had an immense, far-reaching and deeply humane intelligence. His fans can see this in the novels but he applied it equally in his everyday dealings with friends, in his politics and his charitable acts. He had a loathing of injustice of any kind and a special contempt for bullies.

"At the same time he had a joyful and piercing sense of humour which he would spring on you, with an attempt at a straight face, when you were least expecting it. I already cherish the memories of my visits to his house where we would discuss his latest novel-in-progress – but also the latest HBO series, the latest harmful nonsense emanating from the Government, the latest geopolitical breezes coming our way from abroad which Chris always analysed with the long and sure eye of a world-class historian – but I think I will remember best the laughter we enjoyed together.

"Chris was so proud of all the work and determination that went into bringing the novels to our television screens, which I hope will bring an entirely new audience to the books and which will maybe also inspire some old fans to return to their favourite CJ Sansom novels. So long, Chris. I was lucky to know you."

Chris was one of Britain’s bestselling historical novelists. He was born in 1952 in Edinburgh and was educated at Birmingham University with a BA and then a PhD in history. After working in a variety of jobs, he retrained as a solicitor and practised in Sussex until becoming a full-time writer.

He combined both history and law in his debut novel Dissolution – which took readers into the dark heart of Tudor England in a gripping novel of monastic treachery and death. It was an immediate bestseller and critical success, sparking the bestselling Shardlake series, set in the reigns of Henry VIII and young Edward VI, and following the 16th-century lawyer-detective Matthew Shardlake and his assistant Jack Barak.