The Man Who Shot the President

In From Wig and Pen to Computer the author made brief references to his practice and wrote about his experience as a writer of articles and books on legal and allied topics. In this present book, The Man who Shot the President, he gives an amusing account of some of his more entertaining and interesting cases while at the Bar and on the Bench, coupled with revealing stories about some of his contemporaries in the law. It is likely to prove an acceptable gift for law students, lawyers and laymen alike. Sir Mark Potter, in his Foreword, comments: `This book is a treasure house of anecdote and reminiscence.' He goes on to describe it as `a fascinating patchwork assembled from the varied fabric of a career at the Bar of a kind which has all but disappeared in the age of increased specialisation, followed by 22 years as a humane and humorous Circuit Judge before whom advocates and litigants alike were treated with fairness, courtesy and consideration. The author comments: This book is a sort of follow-up. It is not intended to be a full account of my life in the law and it does not use a case-by-case approach. Instead I have followed the practice adopted by one of my contemporaries, the late Mr Justice James Comyn, in several of his delightful books, of hopping from an interesting case to a humorous one and back again. Nowadays the main inspiration for future lawyers probably comes from John Mortimer's famous or notorious barrister - Rumpole of the Bailey. While unable to compete with the works of Comyn or Mortimer, I hope that this book will be found to be a suitable lightweight present for the student or other teenager thinking about a career in the law.