Reviews

Guest post by Catherine Baksi Can an Oscar-winning playwright and a former Eastenders actor succeed where placard-waving lawyers have failed, in drawing to the public’s attention the devastating impact of the legal aid cuts? Far from the glamorous, high-octane legal world portrayed on the small screen in dramas like Silk and Judge Deed, Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s play… Continue reading

Book review by Paul Magrath It is the mid-1960s and Ben Shroeder is a young barrister struggling to establish his career in the snobbish and prejudiced world of the English Bar. This is the third novel in a series which began with A Higher Duty, in which he served pupillage in the set of chambers… Continue reading

What a Fix-Up!: The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 was published (as a Kindle download) on 5 May, just two days before the 2015 General Election. Its author, Garl Gardner, is a barrister who worked for 12 years as a lawyer in government service and currently writes the Head of Legal blog. He also teaches law and… Continue reading

Books reviewed by Paul Magrath Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime by Val McDermid (Profile Books, £18.99) The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury, £8.99)     Val McDermid is a crime writer with a reputation for gritty psychological thrillers and her approach in Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime is that of an outsider… Continue reading

Reviewed by Paul Magrath This charming little handbook is now in its third printing, after proving a popular stocking-filler at Wildy’s bookshop. Its author, a retired judge, is also a keen watercolourist and draughtsman, a family trait that apparently can be traced back tot he 18th Century. It is well known, however, that the law… Continue reading

Reviewed by Paul Magrath Faith in the justice system to deliver a fair verdict is in short supply on the grim council estate where the rape, drug dealing and some pretty grievous bodily harm take place in Kathy Lette’s latest novel, Courting Trouble. Her writing style, a giddy cocktail of high-heeled chick lit and wisecracking… Continue reading

Paul Magrath reviews a book and a play about the notorious phonehacking trial at the Old Bailey… Continue reading

Reviewed by Paul Magrath   Ian McEwan’s latest novel, The Children Act, is named after a statute; and the story it tells is about a High Court judge. But its true purpose seems to be to provide a literary appreciation of the art of writing judgments. Not just any old judgments, though. For McEwan seems… Continue reading

Reviewed by Paul Magrath When the life of an accused man hangs in the balance, even a point of statutory construction can be turned to nail-biting drama. In A Matter for the Jury, Peter Murphy continues the story of Ben Schroeder, a young barrister in the 1960s, with a tense account of his first murder… Continue reading

Reviewed by Paul Magrath Stolen elections, military coups, kidnapping, extortion and terror. We may think these things only happen in unstable third world countries, but Peter Murphy shows how close to home – to the White House itself – these things could come. In his first political thriller, REMOVAL, Murphy showed us how a presidential… Continue reading