Sansom manages to impart a ton of historical information interestingly, so we learn all about the ship and what it would have been like to serve aboard her, and we see how she fares when the battle commences. In Portsmouth, Henry’s favourite ship, the Mary Rose, has been refitted in preparation for the coming battle, and she plays her part in the plot too. Men are being conscripted into the army, huge warships are being built, vast expenditure on military preparations is causing high taxes on the wealthy and a devaluation in the coinage which is further impoverishing the poor and in general England is suffering for Henry’s ego. Here, we see the outcome of Henry VIII’s hubris in warring with France.

The plots are always interesting and there are always several strands going on simultaneously, and at the same time Sansom fills in the historical background, gives a good deal of social history, and doesn’t forget to keep us up to date with the lives of all the regular characters. The Shardlake books are so monumental in size and complexity that frankly it’s very hard to summarise what they’re about. There is a mystery as to why she is in Bedlam and, since she came from a village in the same area as Hoyland Priory, Matthew decides to investigate while he’s there. She has come to depend on Matthew, and he fears she has fallen in love with him. She is a woman Matthew met when he was dealing with a case that involved him visiting Bedlam, the lunatic asylum, where Ellen has been incarcerated for nineteen years. Meantime, the story of Ellen Fettiplace continues from the previous novel.

This will involve Matthew in making a trip to Master Hobbey’s home, Hoyland Priory, not far from Portsmouth, where the English army and fleet are massing to defend the country from an expected invasion by France. The Queen wishes Matthew to take up the case, with a view to finding out what it was that had so horrified the tutor, and to ensuring the well-being of Hugh. The verdict was suicide, but his mother finds that hard to believe.

He had placed a complaint with the Court of Wards, but before he could explain his concerns, he was found hanged. Some years later the tutor had visited Hugh, and had become outraged by something he saw as a monstrous wrong. Unfortunately smallpox ravaged the Hobbey family shortly after, killing Emma and leaving Hugh badly scarred. The children, Hugh and Emma, had been given into the guardianship of an old family friend, Master Hobbey. The servant’s son had been tutor to two children until their parents died in one of the waves of sweating sickness that swept the country. When Queen Catherine Parr’s old servant comes to her with a legal problem, the Queen naturally turns to her old friend, Matthew Shardlake.

Heartstone sansom