Drop of write stuff

Solicitors in Birmingham will no doubt be relieved to know that those who run their local law society are not about to fritter away the 615,000 raised by the recent sale of 1,100 antiquarian books from the society's library (see [2001] Gazette, 11 October, 4).

At the balti dinner that kicked off the Law Society conference, last Friday, several people tried to persuade office-holders to part with some of the cash to pay for a couple of bottles of Tiger beer (as they came in at a whopping 6 each), but not a drop was forthcoming.

However, the Birmingham Law Society was more generous with the books themselves, Obiter has learned.

Many of the books were on loan to Birmingham University (which was not keen to hand them back, we are told), and the signed copy of a work by Percy Bysshe Shelley - which raised 74,800 at auction - was routinely borrowed by students.