Abir Mukherjee

It was almost a world apart.

And that was really quite surprising to me.

I do.

To be fair, my tastes are quite eclectic.

So I read historical fiction.

I read a lot of current fiction.

There's a great book out at the moment called Blood and Sugar by an author called Laura Shepard Robinson, which shines a light on the slave trade in Britain in the 1700s.

Ah, well, there you are.

People are going to think this is a setup.

I think the writing's very fresh.

I think it's a period that, again, it's a subject that we don't really look at in this country.

And it's a period that when we do talk about it, we take the easy routes.

We look at the Georgian period and we don't look at these sorts of issues.

And to me, that was fresh.

At the same time, I'm a huge fan of C.J.

Sansom and the Shardlake series, which in this country, at least,

The Shardlake series is set, I think, in the time of Henry VIII.

To me, that was a gateway into historical fiction, as people love it today.

At the same time, you know, what I tend to read tends to be stuff which is, what I tend to like is books that tread new ground.

And there are a couple of great books that I'd suggest on that.