C.J. Sansom’s Tudor England is a mirror of our divided world

Among the many appreciations of C.J. Sansom, the author of bestselling historical mysteries who died last week aged 71, one of the most eloquent came from Rear Admiral John Lippiett. A friend since Sansom first researched the sinking of Henry VIII’s flagship the Mary Rose (Lippiett headed the Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth after he retired), the admiral recalled ‘a very remarkable man, private and modest, fascinating in his conversations, caring about individuals, generous in the issues that moved him’. Sansom, he acknowledged, was a ‘card-carrying socialist’ who wobbled during the Corbyn years but ‘remained true to Labour’s overall policies’.

Chris Sansom shunned every sort of limelight. He lived in Brighton as invisibly as any chart-topper can – he sold more than four million books – in a period when publishing success often mandates 24/7 social-media performance.