Ken Follett’s Sevillanos spies

KEN FOLLETT’S long awaited new novel is scheduled to come out in autumn 2017 and will be set in Sevilla, as the Welsh author himself announced from the historical city.

The next instalment will complete the trilogy, following the massive international success of both The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. Provisionally, the new novel is due to be titled A Column of Fire.

Ken Follett has confirmed that Seville, the capital of Andalucia, will be the setting for one of the book’s storylines and that he has travelled there himself to do some in-depth research. He has described the book as a spy story, set against the backdrop of the beautiful medieval city.  The author explained that during the Tudor period, there were people all over Europe who wanted to kill the independent English Monarch, Elizabeth I, and a whole espionage network was established to prevent this.

It was this idea that prompted him to set the novel in the 16th century and, despite taking another time-leap as he did with his second novel, World Without End was set 157 years after the events of The Pillars of the Earth, the characters and plot will remain anchored to the fictional English town of Kingsbridge.

The author visited the famous Seville Cathedral, the Real Alcazar and the Naval Museum to immerse himself in the culture and history of the city. Penguin Random House will be the publisher responsible for bringing the book to Spain, and it is expected to match the success of his previous novels with both a British and Spanish readership.

According to a survey conducted by the Federation of Editors Guild, The Pillars of the Earth is the most read book in Spain, having sold over six million copies so far. The second instalment in the series, World Without End, sold over a million and a half copies in Spain and 11 million copies worldwide.

Furthermore, both books have been adapted to screenplays for television and the mini series have been broadcast in the US, Canada, UK and Australia, as well as being translated into many European languages.  The Pillars of the Earth TV adaptation even earned itself three Golden Globe nominations, proving to be a success with book and television fans alike.