Taking a book or two on your annual leave might help you to switch off your mobile and laptop, relax and not think of work. Well, perhaps. Any break can easily become a busman’s holiday if we are not too careful.
A book on travel law may come in handy if there are issues with the trip. Make sure you get evidence! Good books on travel and related legal issues include Saggerson on Travel Law and Litigation (Wildy, Simmonds and Hill Publishing, £149.00). Another on a similar theme is Holiday Law: The Law Relating to Travel and Tourism, edited by David Grant, Stephen Mason and Simon Bunce (Sweet & Maxwell Ltd, £49.95).
A book with a topical theme is Conclave by Robert Harris, now made into a successful film. I have read the book and seen the film at the cinema and highly recommend both. It is a fascinating examination of power politics and personality struggles between reformers and traditionalists. Very well acted and fascinating even if you are or are not interested in the subject matter.
I highly recommend Rough Justice by Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC, the winner of the Judicial Book of the Year competition (Doubleday, £22.00). Until 2022 Her Honour Wendy Joseph was a judge at the Old Bailey who mainly dealt with the most serious cases. She was only the third woman to hold a permanent position at Central Criminal Court. The book consists of four fictional accounts of criminal cases which illustrate the issues criminal courts deal with. How does the law deal with people involved in crime; not only the accused but also victims, witnesses, experts, advocates and judges? The four tales are excellently written in a style which is both light, engaging and informative. They include a child disposing of body parts, a woman accused of killing her husband and gun crime. There are nice touches about the pressure on the system to react and cope. The book includes appendices of criminal law and rules which form the backdrop of the trials. As well as this the judge in the story dips into historical offending by using the Old Bailey online records to contrast and compare today’s case load with past crimes.
Crime stories from the golden age of detective writing are still very popular and suit many tastes. Some thrillers and court room dramas - whether in book, cinema or television - have glaring errors, so look out for stories written by lawyers. Books by Cyril Hare, a former barrister and judge’s marshal, are accurate and entertaining. Another good author of legal stories was solicitor Michael Gilbert, who rose to heights of both writing and legal professions. His Smallbone Deceased is set in a London solicitors’ firm where a deed box is found to contain a corpse. I hope no one looks in the cabinets while I am away! I am going to try to track down more of his books including his short stories.
A more recent book is Tom Hughes’ A Shattered Idol: the Lord Chief justice and his Troublesome Women about the problems faced by Lord Coleridge, a successful barrister, then judge rising to be Lord Chief Justice of England. A family dispute led to him being involved in lengthy and costly litigation and he found himself in his own court. The book is a bit like a Victorian melodrama with lots of dark deeds, a bounder or fortune hunter.
A book I enjoyed reading recently was The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer: Arthur Conan Doyle, George Edalji and the Case of the Foreigner in the English Village by Shrabani Basu (Bloomsbury, £9.99). It is the real life story of a Birmingham solicitor of mixed heritage who was accused and convicted of dreadful attacks on animals in the West Midlands village where he lived. There was an outcry that there had been a miscarriage of justice and the case was investigated by Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes’ fame.
Edalji also wrote a book called Railway Law for the 'Man in the train', subtitled a guide for the travelling public. Published in 1901 it is an entertaining book and deals with caselaw on what happens if a passenger has no ticket, travels too far and whether a porter can detain them while a police constable is called. There is also consideration of the vexed question of paying for first class and the guard lets in anyone to the carriage; whether putting your hat and newspaper on seat 'bags' it for your friend who is joining you and whether a dog can be forced to give up their seat which they have a ticket for if a human passenger cannot find somewhere to sit down.
If you have a good holiday you might want to extend it, not go back to the office and let the staff get on with it! Perhaps not. All firms do need exit strategies and retirement beckons for most of us, whether planned or unplanned, welcome or not. Retirement is described in the following book as the 'longest holiday of your life'. Partner Retirement in Law Firms: Strategies for Partners, Law firms and Other Professional Services by Ronnie Fox (Globe Law and Business, £95.00) is a necessary read for all of us. Retirement can be sudden, brutal and unexpected so we need a book like this to advise us. Lawyers are often excellent at supporting clients but not always as good at advising themselves. The book looks at retirement from the firm’s perspective, the individual concerned, accounting and tax consideration, financial aspects and what’s next after retirement.
So enjoy your break if you have one. Let me know your favourite reads. Answers please on a postcard.
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