In December 2007 Simon Toyne quit his job and sailed for France with his wife and two children on the midnight ferry. After a stormy, sleepless crossing they arrived exhausted and immediately abandoned all plans to drive eight hours south to their new home. Instead they headed inland to Rouen, where in the pre-dawn light Toyne was mesmerised by the twisted spires of Rouen Cathedral rising up into the lightening sky. This image, seared on his imagination that cold morning, would become the fictional Citadel of Sanctus, relocated to the far eastern fringes of Europe, among the oldest continually inhabited places of the world.

Sanctus is Simon Toyne's first novel. It has to date been translated into 17 languages and will be published in 27 countries.