Are you looking for a perfect present to introduce someone to the Helen Oddfellow mysteries this Christmas?
I’m offering two-book bundles, each including a signed copy of Unlawful Things and The Peacock Room, gift-wrapped and sent to the address of your choice, for £15 (including posting and packing). UK postage only.
I only have a few of these available, so if you’d like to order one, email me today at hello@annasayburnlane.com.
Unlawful Things
Lewisham Voices podcast: Beyond Unlawful Things
I enjoyed a long chat with Rachel New, outreach officer for Lewisham Libraries, for their Lewisham Voices website, about the inspiration behind Unlawful Things and my next novel, The Peacock Room. In
cludes tips on writing in lockdown, becoming a journalist, and how not to give up on your novel during eight years of writing!
You can listen to our conversation here.
The history and mysteries behind Unlawful Things – online talk
The usual talks and events that I had planned for this year are on hold, so I decided to try an online talk. On Monday May 4 at 7pm, I’ll be talking about the real-life history and mysteries that inspired the novel.
The talk will take you to some of the fascinating places in London and Kent that I visited while researching the novel. I’ll talk about the amazing archives at Dulwich College, the ancient pilgrim hostel in Canterbury and the magnificent Cobham Hall in Kent.
To join the talk, email me hello@annasayburnlane.com and I’ll send you a link.
NEW: Listen to a recording of the talk here.
Unlawful Things at the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival
I’m excited to announce that I will be appearing at the prestigious Bloody Scotland crime writing festival next month, reading from Unlawful Things on Sunday 22 September.
The festival attracts lots of big names. This year the programme includes Ian Rankin, David Baldacci and Lisa Jewell, and many more.
The festival has a “Crime in the Spotlight” programme, which highlights new and upcoming crime writers. I was thrilled to be selected as one of this year’s 12 Spotlighters. I’ll be appearing alongside Icelandic crime queen Yrsa Sigurdardottir, who will be interviewed after my reading. Her detective Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, a lawyer, is also an amateur sleuth with a record of digging up secrets from the past.
It’s great for a new writer to get such good exposure, and I’m hoping to introduce some crime fans to Helen Oddfellow. I wonder how the two fictional detectives would get along in real life!
Find out more about the festival here.
Unlawful Things on tour
One of the many things I didn’t know existed when I started on my publishing journey was the Book Blog Tour. Instead of going on tour around the country, you send your book ‘on tour’ around the book blogs.
The Unlawful Things blog tour had 13 stops, with book-lovers around the country agreeing to post a review, extract or feature about the book. It was exciting to see the reaction of these amazing people, who all read a huge amount and post reviews on dozens of books each year. Book bloggers, unlike some social media ‘influencers’, are unpaid and truly independent. They get a review copy of the book, and are free to write whatever they want in their review – so I was also a little nervous. Would these expert readers like Unlawful Things?
They did. “It is definitely five stars from me for this one, a fully action packed thriller with plenty of content, fantastic characters and a great story line – very highly recommended!” said Donna of Donna’s Book Blog. “The great prologue has you hooked from the off……What then follows is a gripping tale of history, religion, conspiracies and a little romance,” said The Bookwormery. “A thriller with an academic twist, this is a unique book dominated by some serious historical research,” reported Northern Reader. Book After Book called it “suspenseful, atmospheric, and gripping” while Stacy Is Reading said: “Unlawful Things is a fascinating feast for the imagination and a true success on every level.”
Rachael Read It was one of several bloggers who hoped to hear more of Helen Oddfellow. “’Unlawful Things’ heralds the arrival of a heroine and literary sleuth who stays with you long after the last page,” she said, while Bookmark That declared: “Helen Oddfellow is my new favourite person.” The Book Drealms said “There was a depth of character built up as the story progressed which really endeared [Helen] to me.” Shelf of Unread Books, on the other hand, enthused about the “brilliantly, terrifyingly realised” villains.
Wrong Side of Forty declared it “an exciting, knowledgable and engrossing read”, while Jaffa Reads Too wrote: “Helen’s determined quest to discover the truth allows the story to look more closely into the tangled history of Christopher Marlowe, a fascinating subject in himself, but which also combines a really dark historical mystery, with a modern day fast action thriller.”
My thanks to everyone who took the trouble to read and review the book. It makes all the difference.
Thomas Becket: Canterbury’s martyr saint still making headlines
For an event that took place almost 850 years ago, Thomas Becket’s death is surprisingly well documented.
Four knights rode to Canterbury Cathedral, shortly after Archbishop Becket returned from a lengthy exile in France. They demanded to speak to him; they claimed to be acting for the King, Henry II. They drew their swords and cut Becket down, leaving him dead on the stone floor.
The murder shocked Europe and outraged the church. Henry II is alleged to have signed Becket’s death warrant with the hasty words: “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?” He swiftly declared his repentance, walked barefoot into Canterbury and prayed for forgiveness. Pope Alexander III declared Becket a saint. Saint Thomas Becket was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, in an ornate golden shrine studded with precious stones. Rumours quickly began that the saint worked healing miracles, and the pilgrims started to come. Thousands of them, down the ages, remembered best now in Geoffrey Chaucer’s epic poem The Canterbury Tales.
What happened next is less well-documented. We know that Henry VIII, in his own bitter battle with the Catholic Church, declared Becket a traitor, and had the shrine destroyed. What happened to Becket’s remains? Nobody really knows, and that mystery is a key part of the plot of Unlawful Things.
So I was excited to see that Saint Thomas Becket’s remains are back in the news – or at least, his blood-stained tunic is. The tunic was given to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, some 50 years before the shrine at Canterbury was destroyed. The basilica will loan the relic to Canterbury for an exhibition to mark 850 years since the saint’s death, in 2020.
Two years ago, a sliver of his elbow joint toured Britain, attracting crowds. When I started to write Unlawful Things, I wondered if modern Britain would be in the slightest bit interested in what had happened to the saint’s remains. Happily, it looks as if Becket can still pull a crowd, eight centuries after his death.
But what does Thomas Becket have to do with Christopher Marlowe, modern day London and Unlawful Things? Sorry, you’ll have to read the book to find out!