An old Obiter friend has added to his tally of two novels with Confessions of a Barrister – written under the nom de plume Russell Winnock.

Confessions has plenty of nicely observed detail from criminal practice and provincial court life.    

But at the outset, Obiter was a little concerned that the solicitors’ profession might be unsympathetically drawn. There is a monster of a solicitor who puts the author on the firm’s blacklist for resolving a lucrative case too soon, and another who convinces a legal aid client to sack him as his brief.

Are solicitors so charmless? Well, one isn’t – trainee Kelly Backworth, whose ‘colour and youth and hope and expectation… shone out amongst the grey despondency of the waiting room’. Only one problem for Winnock – the ‘surly’ Backworth won’t smile at him.

Obiter is happy to pass on to ‘Winnock’ any tips from readers on the most reliable ways to make a solicitor smile. Confessions of a Barrister is published by The Friday Project.

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