Anatomy of a Scandal - Facts

 One of the settings in the novel is Westminster Hall, which is part of the place where James works. Westminster Hall is a medieval great hall which is part of the Palace of Westminster in London. The building has had various functions over the years, including being used for judicial purposes from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries.

When she is at Oxford, Sophie writes an essay about courtly love, based on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Courtly love was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing various deeds or services for ladies because of their "courtly love". This kind of love was originally a literary fiction created for the entertainment of the nobility, but as time passed, these ideas about love spread to popular culture and attracted a larger literate audience. 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English alliterative verse. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of folk motifs: the beheading game and the exchange of winnings. 

The trial takes place at the Old Bailey. The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. 

When scandal breaks out, Sophie goes to Devon where her mother lives. Devon is a county in southwest England. It encompasses sandy beaches, fossil cliffs, medieval towns and moorland national parks. 

There is a reference to Burgh Island, where Agatha Christie wrote 'And Then There Were None'. Burgh Island is a tidal island on the coast of South Devon in England near the small seaside village of Bigbury-on-Sea. There are several buildings on the island, the largest being the Art Deco Burgh Island Hotel.