Overview

THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A powerful polemic' Sunday Times 'A compelling, eye-opening read' Daily Express - Did an illegal immigrant avoid deportation because he had a cat? - Is the law on the side of the burglar who enters your home? - Are unelected judges 'enemies of the people'? Most of us think the law is only relevant to criminals, if we even think of it at all. But the law touches every area of our lives: from intimate family matters to the biggest issues in our society. Our unfamiliarity is dangerous because it makes us vulnerable to media spin, political lies and the kind of misinformation that frequently comes from loud-mouthed amateurs and those with vested interests. This 'fake law' allows the powerful and the ignorant to corrupt justice without our knowledge - worse, we risk letting them make us complicit. Thankfully, the Secret Barrister is back to reveal the stupidity, malice and incompetence behind many of the biggest legal stories of recent years. In Fake Law, the Secret Barrister debunks the lies and builds a defence against the abuse of our law, our rights and our democracy that is as entertaining as it is vital.

Full Product Details

Author:   The Secret Barrister
Publisher:   Pan Macmillan
Imprint:   Picador
Dimensions:   Width: 13.00cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 19.70cm
Weight:   0.294kg
ISBN:  

9781529009989

ISBN 10:   1529009987
Pages:   416
Publication Date:   27 May 2021
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

Reviews

Well written, both punchy and providing concise explanations of complex laws . . . a powerful polemic that also acts as a primer about our legal rights -- Rosamund Urwin * Sunday Times * The Secret Barrister mounts a powerful defence of lawyers and the law from their noisy detractors . . . this is an urgent and highly readable book. You will come away from it feeling that your mind has been purged -- Thomas Grant * The Times * Fake Law is a compelling, eye-opening read and should act as a wake-up call for anyone with an interest in how the law, and, by extension, society and justice function – that is to say, every one of us. -- Huston Gilmore * Daily Express * The authority of this author is in the sheer quality of the writing. To keep up to this standard in tweet after tweet, blogpost after blogpost, and now book after book is remarkable – especially if, as the author tells us, they do all this in addition to a busy and stressful criminal practice * Prospect * I enjoyed reading this book. It is well-written and informative and the SB is right to lament the levels of public ignorance about the way the system works. -- Philip Johnston * Daily Telegraph * The Secret Barrister picks apart the “deliberate smokescreen” of falsehoods with which the UK government justifies its policies and the methods employed by a compliant press to amplify and embellish them. Unashamedly polemical but legally watertight, Fake Law is a disturbing indictment * Herald * This is not the easiest book you will read this summer. But it will be one of the most educational and alarming * Strong Words * A defence of the legal system and exposé of agenda-driven politicians, click-hungry tabloid editors and powerful corporate interests who persuade us that the system is stacked in favour of criminals and the undeserving. In fact, the resulting changes to the law mean our own rights – for example, to legal aid – are being quietly eroded * Daily Mirror * A much-needed book that looks at some of the biggest myths behind the legal system. Fans of the Secret Barrister will be pleased with the latest instalment, which offers well-written insight, making difficult-to-understand laws clearer with interesting and current case studies. -- Megan Baynes * Press Association * The anonymous campaigning lawyer returns with a myth-busting new book that takes on the many detractors of the law and legal profession. * The Times *

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 -- John Crace, <i>The Guardian </i>on <i>The Secret Barrister </i> 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 on <i>The Secret Barrister </i> 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 -- <i>Daily Telegraph</i> on <i>The Secret Barrister </i> 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 -- <i>The Observer </i>on <i>The Secret Barrister </i> 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 on <i>The Secret Barrister</i> 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 -- <i>The Times</i> on <i>The Secret Barrister </i> 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 -- Afua Hirsch, <i>Guardian </i>on <i>The Secret Barrister</i> 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 -- <i>Daily Mail </i>on <i>The Secret Barrister </i> Dishes the dirt - or serves up a slice of reality - on what barristers do -- <i>The Times</i> on <i>The Secret Barrister</i> 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 <i>Fall Out</i> and <i>All Out War </i>on <i>The Secret Barrister</i>

Author Information

The Secret Barrister is a junior barrister specializing in criminal law, and the author of the award-winning blog of the same name. The Secret Barrister writes for many publications, including The Times, the Guardian, New Statesman, iNews, Esquire and Counsel magazine. In 2016 and 2017, the Secret Barrister was named Independent Blogger of the Year at the Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards. In 2018, the Secret Barrister was named Legal Personality of the Year at the Law Society Awards. Their first book, The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken, was a Sunday Times number-one bestseller and has been in the top-ten bestseller list for more than a year. It won the Books Are My Bag Non-Fiction Award 2018, and was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year and the Specsavers Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2018.

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