The Secret Barrister

How can you defend a child-abuser you suspect to be guilty? What do you say to someone imprisoned for ten years, who you are sure is innocent? What is the law? Why do we need it? How does it happen? Why do they wear those stupid wigs? Every year in England, the Crown Prosecution Service brings hundreds of thousands of prosecutions, with cases both simple and frighteningly complex, stretching across the spectrum of human cruelty. These are the stories of one barrister's experience at the Criminal Bar, the cases prosecuted and the cases defended, to answer the questions we all have about both the system and the moral dilemmas of the law. This is a book that seeks not only to shine a light on some of the best and worst of humanity but also to force us to think clearly about a system which would never be off the front pages if the public knew what it was really like. From the brain behind award-winning legal blog The Secret Barrister, comes this brilliant examination of how the law happens in Britain today. Rooted in personal experience but encompassing hugely important principles of moral philosophy, this will do for the legal system what Do No Harm did for brain surgery. The Secret Barrister blog is frequently quoted in the mainstream press and was awarded The Comment Awards Independent Blogger of the Year Award 2016. The anonymity of our barrister at the coalface of modern law allows candid freedom to write about how the law functions and fails in Britain today. Pan Macmillan are extremely excited to see this passionate, compelling and moving voice deliver a powerful inside story to the widest possible readership, and at a time where our bastions of justice, however flawed, are under attack. This book is a fascinating glimpse into a hidden world, a passionate defence of the law, a clear-eyed analysis of how and why it's broken, and an explanation of why we urgently need to start caring.