‘Shardlake’ series author CJ Sansom dies just days before Sean Bean TV adaptation due to air

CJ Sansom, the author of Dissolution, Winter In Madrid and other best-selling novels, has died.

His publisher confirmed that he had passed away aged 71, following a diagnosis of multiple myeloma in 2012.

This comes just before the release of Shardlake, which is the upcoming television adaptation of Dissolution, Sansom’s 2004 historical mystery novel. The series, which stars Sean Bean and Arthur Hughes, will premiere on Disney+ on May 1. Check out the trailer for the series below.

Maria Rejt, Sansom’s editor and publisher described how Sansom “wished from the very start only to be published quietly and without fanfare,” (via The Guardian).

She added: “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.”

Dissolution was Sansom’s first published novel, and the first instalment in the Matthew Shardlake series, which consists of seven books. The author was reportedly working on the eighth book in the series when he died, with Rejt saying: “His worsening health made progress painfully slow: his meticulous historical research and his writing were always so important to him”.

The majority of the Shardlake series takes place during the reign of Henry VIII, with the first novel being set during the dissolution of the monasteries, in which the King disbanded any signs of the Catholic Church.

Speaking of the late author, Rejt shared: “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”.

In 2007, the BBC commissioned an adaptation of the first novel in the series, with Kenneth Branagh to play Shardlake, before Branagh chose instead to star in the drama series Wallander.

However, in 2012, BBC Radio 4 adapted Dissolution into a 10-part radio serial, with Jason Watkins as Shardlake and Mark Bonnar as Thomas Cromwell.

The screenplay for the Disney+ series has been written by Stephen Butchard, known for adapting The Saxon Stories into The Last Kingdom for BBC/Netflix. It has been directed by Justin Chadwick, who was nominated for a BAFTA for his TV adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House.

In other news, The Last Kingdom star actor Adrian Schiller died earlier this month, aged 60.