Over this weekend we have been in Norwich to attend a family celebration and while there we visited the nearby town of Wymondham (pronounced Windham) Although I’ve visited the county, and Norwich many times before, I’d never been to Wymondham and it was a lovely surprise to find it’s a most interesting and historic place. As we wandered through, the first and most striking thing we saw was the Market Cross, an early seventeenth century replacement for the original which had burnt down. The next thing which drew me like a magnet, was a bookshop, Kett’s.
The word ‘bookshop’ was the draw, but the name also rang a bell, and I thought maybe I’d seen or been in another of the same name. But no, I read a plaque outside:
Needless to say, we had to go into the bookshop, and having entered and browsed it would have been rude not to buy a couple of books each.
The ringing bell continued – I knew of Robert Kett of course, but it suddenly came to me – the late author, C.J. Sansom had written about him in his last and maybe greatest book, Tombland. This is what I wrote when I was several chapters into it:
It starts in the summer of 1549, and in a realistic way, Matthew has aged. Since the close of the previous books he has in his fictional world been much taken up with his legal work… and it’s apparent that it has become dull. He doesn’t want to risk his life during these difficult times of the troubled reign of the new young king, Edward VI; Edward is only nine years old and he is under the protection of powerful men… but Matthew wants a little excitement.
Here’s a link to find out more: https://pages.panmacmillan.com/c-j-sansom/
Lois Elsden 