The Secret Barrister

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What to expect

An anonymous barrister's darkly comic and moving first-hand account of life in the legal system, and how it's failing us all.

The Sunday Times number one bestseller.
Winner of the Books are My Bag Non-Fiction Award.
Shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year.
Shortlisted for Specsavers Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

‘Eye-opening, funny and horrifying’ – Observer

You may not wish to think about it, but one day you or someone you love will almost certainly appear in a criminal courtroom. You might be a juror, a victim, a witness or – perhaps through no fault of your own – a defendant. Whatever your role, you’d expect a fair trial.

I’m a barrister. I work in the criminal justice system, and every day I see how fairness is not guaranteed. Too often the system fails those it is meant to protect. The innocent are wronged and the guilty allowed to walk free.

In The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken I want to share some stories from my daily life to show you how the system is broken, who broke it and why we should start caring before it’s too late.

A Sunday Times top ten bestseller for twenty-four weeks.

‘Everyone who has any interest in public life should read it’ – Daily Mail

Critics Review

By turns eye-opening, damning and hilarious, the secret barrister lifts the lid on a legal system where the system, the politicians, the lack of funding and sometimes the judges are the real villains and the victims are all of us
Tim Shipman, author of Fall Out and All Out War
The Secret Barrister can write...everyone who has any interest in public life should read it...this is a book of some brilliance, clearly explained, cogently argued
Daily Mail
Takes the reader deep into the bowels of the criminal justice system...the message of this entertaining book is delivered with great skill...the book is at once a lament and a celebration...the justice system as not just for criminals and victims but for all of us - it is the symbol of our nation's humanity
The Times
Terrifying and occasionally hilarious... this is an eye-opening, if depressing, account of the practice of law today. Perhaps there is hope, but the author leaves us in no doubt that urgent reform is needed
The Observer
This excellent book will hopefully raise awareness of what has been, until now, a silent crisis. It is at once a vicious polemic, a helpful primer and a cringe-inducing account of one barrister's travails
Daily Telegraph
A sensation beyond lawyers’ circles. The Secret Barrister is an anguished, detailed polemic by an anonymous current practitioner about how dangerously flawed, fragile and underfunded our famed legal system has become . . . an SOS, a desperate and cogent call for action and resources before the justice system, and our faith in it, collapses . . . I hope the arguments . . . will resonate widely – and that the government will act on them before it is too late.
Sunday Times
The unfolding calamity in our criminal justice system is best told in The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken. This angry yet forensic analysis from first arrest to prison is a gripping front-line view by an anonymous, lowly criminal barrister. Read and rage at evidence that “every day the provably guilty walk free”, while the hapless needlessly end up in jail.
Guardian
Fluently and engagingly written...a copy of this book should be placed on the desk of every judge, every trainee lawyer, every would-be lawyer, every politician, and every minister responsible for the legal system
The Literary Review
An illuminating and timely insight into the legal system, transforming arcane practice into accessible and fascinating anecdote
Sunday Express
If you have not already met The Secret Barrister, he or she makes an entertaining and acerbic holiday companion for those who don’t switch off their brains in summer
Guardian, Best Summer Books 2018
Behold, the book that got me through jury service! A timely and accessible look at today's UK court system, this is a no nonsense explainer on how things work, very much don't work, and how we got here. Who knew that educating yourself about, for example, the history of magistrates, could be so much fun?
Alexandra Heminsley, The Pool
Funny, frightening, frequently infuriating but above all profoundly human. As a sensitive and knowledgeable storyteller, the Secret Barrister does for lawyers what James Herriot did for vets
James O'Brien
Funny, angry, mordant, social satire, reform manifesto – The Secret Barrister offers them all in this legal tour de force. Told through often heart-rending stories of victims and victors in a game of legal roulette, a quest for decency and proper standards of legal service shines through the bleakness. If the Secret Barrister has her or his way, it might happen a bit more often. Read this book, hope and pray
Andrew Adonis
Its stories of how the law often fails those whom it is meant to protect – how do barristers feel when someone they believe to be innocent gets banged up for five years? – make for gripping reading.
The Guardian
Stories of The Law and How It's Broken is mordantly clear, chillingly well-observed and terrifyingly funny. I have rarely read a book that filled me with greater fury. Read this, give it to friends, share the Secret Barrister's testimony with strangers - it's a rare and righteous thing
A.L.Kennedy, Booker-listed author of Serious Sweet
Dishes the dirt — or serves up a slice of reality — on what barristers do
The Times
What’s so powerful about The Secret Barrister is its ability to connect the dots...revealing a picture that is more a commentary on society as a whole than it is on robing rooms full of horsehair wigs
Guardian
An expert and eloquent account of much that has gone wrong with our criminal law procedures: this book is accurate, informative and sensibly points the way to pragmatic reforms
Geoffrey Robertson QC, author of The Justice Game
I suggest that the Leader of the House and all members of the Government read the book by the Secret Barrister
Valerie Vaz, MP, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Wickedly funny and deadly serious, this brilliant book is an essential read for anyone who cares about justice, fairness and equality before the law. If you felt these things were safe, the Secret Barrister will leave you stunned and aghast at a criminal justice system absolutely broken by cuts across the board, frequently dishing out a travesty of justice. Impassioned, searing and utterly compelling
Rachel Clarke, author of Your Life in My Hands
A brilliant but deeply disturbing book. Using the legal cases of real people, it shows how our criminal justice system is so broken, the innocent end up behind bars while the guilty walk free
Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion and Co-leader of the Green Party
‘Follow[s] the life of a criminal trial, from charge through to appeal, dispelling myths, righting wrongs and telling anecdotes . . . The book is impeccably researched, and the arguments are backed to the nines with statistics and worked examples. Laid out calmly, the facts do what facts should do, but often don’t: they clarify and convince. The Secret Barrister’s book is a call to arms: a desperate, last-ditch attempt to open the eyes of those outside the profession to the injustices which exist within our justice system. Yet it remains an optimistic book, offering answers and solutions . . . this immensely impressive volume manages to make a subject that is bleak and dry utterly compelling . . . The Secret Barrister describes this system as a ‘sausage factory’ of justice. No one wants to see how the sausage gets made – but we all should.’
Spectator
Powerful points are expressed in a funny but penetrating way: the barrister weaves personal experience with his or her most memorable cases and clients...after you’ve chuckled to yourself, it forces you to reflect on its real meaning
Prospect Magazine
I've read an absolutely amazing, gripping book by The Secret Barrister...it's a bestselling book which is spread, I think, by word of mouth, about their experiences as a criminal barrister...I found it incredibly informative, a must read
Ed Miliband, Reasons to be Cheerful podcast
The blogger's much-anticipated book is a rallying cry against short sighted governments and an apathetic public...With clarity and eloquence the dozen angry, passionate, frustrated chapters shout their unanimous and damning verdict on a system “close to breaking point”...the book certainly deserves a wider audience
The Brief, The Times
Essential reading for those in, and outside, the law
The Criminal Bar Association
One of the legal blogosphere's hottest properties
The Times on The Secret Barrister Blog
Completely riveting . . . it reveals the good and bad in human beings
The Bookseller - One to Watch
Indispensable
Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times - on The Secret Barrister Blog
The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How it’s Broken is an eye-opening, funny and horrifying look at the criminal justice system, perfect for reading sections out and disrupting the lives of those around you who are “just trying to have a nice time”.
Guardian, Best summer books 2018
The Secret Barrister says we should be outraged at the state of our criminal justice system, which has been devastated by legal aid cuts and is staffed by demoralised and underpaid barristers. When justice is under threat, it is bad news for everyone.
The Times, The best nonfiction to read on holiday this summer
This insider’s account of a malfunctioning legal system close to breaking point would be funny if it weren’t so frightening.
Daily Mail
A very good book for anyone who has an interest in the machinations and history of the British criminal justice system, and even if you don’t it is still highly interesting. A great factual history but presented in an easy to understand style that allows scrutiny of every nook and cranny of the subject. Both enlightening and entertaining, and what more could you want from a book?
Inside Time
The Secret Barrister is published at a time of turmoil for the English justice system . . . it is a broadside against a justice system of pervasive inefficiencies; unrelenting adjournments; beleaguered lawyers and court users treated with a carelessness tantamount to contempt . . . but with humility and compassion, this book helps us to see why the rights of those whom we love to hate are sacred. A panoptic account of its subject, measured and forensic throughout, The Secret Barrister is the signal in a world of noise on justice matters and – it is hoped – a spur to action
Scottish Legal News
This is a campaigning book, written by a true advocate, and thanks to an initiative by the Criminal Bar Association, every MP has received a free copy. They need to read it and take action.
LRB
Both shocking and moving, but most of all I found in it a burning desire to make our justice system work properly for everyone.
Daniel Zeichner MP

User Reviews

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TPB 14/06/2024

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