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‘Penitenziagite! Watch out for the draco who cometh in futurum to gnaw on your anima! La morte est supra nos!’ On New Year’s Eve 1988 I watched Jean-Jacques Annaud’s extraordinary film version of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Quite unexpectedly, it changed my life. Overnight, I became obsessed with everything medieval.
After studying law and then medieval history in England and France, I ended up handing in a doctoral thesis on the Knights Templar and Hospitaller, and happily telling my examiners I was heading off to the Bar. ‘Well,’ one of them nodded, a little wistfully, ‘you’ll meet more medievalists in the Temple than you will here.’ I am not sure that turned out to be true, but my chambers were 50 metres from Temple Church, and its recumbent stone effigies continued to mesmerise me.
I am supposed to mention music and other things that inspire me, so I’ll recommend Pérotin as a transcendent accompaniment for any visit to Temple Church. Try the version of his Beata viscera recorded by the Hilliard Ensemble. Basses provide a steady, stable drone, while a lone voice languidly swoops and soars above it.
As lawyers we are surrounded by documents. Heaps of them that litter our shelves and minds. Yet each one comes with its own questions. Who wrote it? Who read it? Did readers believe it? Can we? Umberto Eco (yes, him again) explores this hilariously in Foucault’s Pendulum, in which a mysterious fragmentary message turns out not to be the masterplan of an occult society, but an abbreviated shopping list.
Some years ago, the Daily Telegraph asked me to write a non-political piece every day on a historical anniversary. This partially coincided with the Brexit referendum. Britain has a lot of history, so many of the events I wrote about occurred before the Reformation and Empire, when Britain shared its religious, political and economic fabric with western Europe. I found it fascinating that such pieces caused some readers a degree of apoplexy.
I’d better break for another piece of music. I will go for Medusa by the New York thrash band, Anthrax. If that doesn’t get you moving in the morning (possibly to the off button), nothing will. And maybe a hymn of praise to the Gorgoneion could help get Britain back on its feet.
Those readers from the Daily Telegraph who responded to my pieces by muttering in the comments that Dominic doesn’t sound like a very British name, or that I don’t look 100% white, got me thinking. What does it mean to be British? How do we define ourselves? How do others see us? And how have the answers to these questions changed over time? I went back to Caesar, Celtic bards, Gildas, Anglo-Saxon and Viking poets, Anglo-French chroniclers, medieval songwriters and lovers, Tudor ministers, witch-hunting court clerks, Jacobite terrorists, Puritans and Cavaliers, early experimental scientists, pioneer Romantics, Victorian inventors, First World War satirists and classical composers, and a cast of others to see what they recorded in a variety of documents ranging from words to music and painting. The result is Anatomy of a Nation: A History of British Identity in 50 Documents.
Now I have mentioned the Romantics, I can move on to art I find inspiring. The book includes William Blake’s poem Jerusalem from his epic Milton: A Poem in 2 Books, created from 1804 to 1811. I say ‘created’ because Blake never just wrote. He etched, engraved, illustrated, painted, printed and bound. Although written off in his lifetime as an ‘unfortunate lunatic’ with a ‘distempered brain’, he was discovered by the barrister Alexander Gilchrist, and is now celebrated for his irrepressible creativity. He has always been a hero, and it is a thrill to have him in the book.
After looking at all these documents, my conclusion is that Britain has had many identities. Our inability to see beyond Churchill and Empire does us no favours in finding solutions for operating in the world of the 21st century. But if we look all the way back to 950,000 BC, to the many different cultures Britain has hosted, often simultaneously, we may start to be able to chart a way forward.
And, finally, some inspirational objects. On my desk I have the goggle-eyed berserker from the Lewis Chess Pieces – hilariously biting his shield – and the sedentary bishop, propping himself up with his crozier to counter the boredom of being. They were probably made in Norway, and attest to the Gaelic-Norse culture of the period in the Hebrides. I expect there would be those who would say they don’t seem very British. But they are. Just not Churchill and Empire British.
‘Penitenziagite! Watch out for the draco who cometh in futurum to gnaw on your anima! La morte est supra nos!’ On New Year’s Eve 1988 I watched Jean-Jacques Annaud’s extraordinary film version of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Quite unexpectedly, it changed my life. Overnight, I became obsessed with everything medieval.
After studying law and then medieval history in England and France, I ended up handing in a doctoral thesis on the Knights Templar and Hospitaller, and happily telling my examiners I was heading off to the Bar. ‘Well,’ one of them nodded, a little wistfully, ‘you’ll meet more medievalists in the Temple than you will here.’ I am not sure that turned out to be true, but my chambers were 50 metres from Temple Church, and its recumbent stone effigies continued to mesmerise me.
I am supposed to mention music and other things that inspire me, so I’ll recommend Pérotin as a transcendent accompaniment for any visit to Temple Church. Try the version of his Beata viscera recorded by the Hilliard Ensemble. Basses provide a steady, stable drone, while a lone voice languidly swoops and soars above it.
As lawyers we are surrounded by documents. Heaps of them that litter our shelves and minds. Yet each one comes with its own questions. Who wrote it? Who read it? Did readers believe it? Can we? Umberto Eco (yes, him again) explores this hilariously in Foucault’s Pendulum, in which a mysterious fragmentary message turns out not to be the masterplan of an occult society, but an abbreviated shopping list.
Some years ago, the Daily Telegraph asked me to write a non-political piece every day on a historical anniversary. This partially coincided with the Brexit referendum. Britain has a lot of history, so many of the events I wrote about occurred before the Reformation and Empire, when Britain shared its religious, political and economic fabric with western Europe. I found it fascinating that such pieces caused some readers a degree of apoplexy.
I’d better break for another piece of music. I will go for Medusa by the New York thrash band, Anthrax. If that doesn’t get you moving in the morning (possibly to the off button), nothing will. And maybe a hymn of praise to the Gorgoneion could help get Britain back on its feet.
Those readers from the Daily Telegraph who responded to my pieces by muttering in the comments that Dominic doesn’t sound like a very British name, or that I don’t look 100% white, got me thinking. What does it mean to be British? How do we define ourselves? How do others see us? And how have the answers to these questions changed over time? I went back to Caesar, Celtic bards, Gildas, Anglo-Saxon and Viking poets, Anglo-French chroniclers, medieval songwriters and lovers, Tudor ministers, witch-hunting court clerks, Jacobite terrorists, Puritans and Cavaliers, early experimental scientists, pioneer Romantics, Victorian inventors, First World War satirists and classical composers, and a cast of others to see what they recorded in a variety of documents ranging from words to music and painting. The result is Anatomy of a Nation: A History of British Identity in 50 Documents.
Now I have mentioned the Romantics, I can move on to art I find inspiring. The book includes William Blake’s poem Jerusalem from his epic Milton: A Poem in 2 Books, created from 1804 to 1811. I say ‘created’ because Blake never just wrote. He etched, engraved, illustrated, painted, printed and bound. Although written off in his lifetime as an ‘unfortunate lunatic’ with a ‘distempered brain’, he was discovered by the barrister Alexander Gilchrist, and is now celebrated for his irrepressible creativity. He has always been a hero, and it is a thrill to have him in the book.
After looking at all these documents, my conclusion is that Britain has had many identities. Our inability to see beyond Churchill and Empire does us no favours in finding solutions for operating in the world of the 21st century. But if we look all the way back to 950,000 BC, to the many different cultures Britain has hosted, often simultaneously, we may start to be able to chart a way forward.
And, finally, some inspirational objects. On my desk I have the goggle-eyed berserker from the Lewis Chess Pieces – hilariously biting his shield – and the sedentary bishop, propping himself up with his crozier to counter the boredom of being. They were probably made in Norway, and attest to the Gaelic-Norse culture of the period in the Hebrides. I expect there would be those who would say they don’t seem very British. But they are. Just not Churchill and Empire British.
Sam Townend KC explains the Bar Council’s efforts towards ensuring a bright future for the profession
Giovanni D’Avola explores the issue of over-citation of unreported cases and the ‘added value’ elements of a law report
Louise Crush explores the key points and opportunities for tax efficiency
Westgate Wealth Management Ltd is a Partner Practice of FTSE 100 company St. James’s Place – one of the top UK Wealth Management firms. We offer a holistic service of distinct quality, integrity, and excellence with the aim to build a professional and valuable relationship with our clients, helping to provide them with security now, prosperity in the future and the highest standard of service in all of our dealings.
Is now the time to review your financial position, having reached a career milestone? asks Louise Crush
If you were to host a dinner party with 10 guests, and you asked them to explain what financial planning is and how it differs to financial advice, you’d receive 10 different answers. The variety of answers highlights the ongoing need to clarify and promote the value of financial planning.
Most of us like to think we would risk our career in order to meet our ethical obligations, so why have so many lawyers failed to hold the line? asks Flora Page
If your current practice environment is bringing you down, seek a new one. However daunting the change, it will be worth it, says Anon Barrister
Creating advocacy opportunities for juniors is now the expectation but not always easy to put into effect. Tom Mitcheson KC distils developing best practice from the Patents Court initiative already bearing fruit
National courts are now running the bulk of the world’s war crimes cases and corporate prosecutions are part of this growing trend, reports Chris Stephen
Let’s hear it for the assessors, says Dame Anne Rafferty of the KC Selection Panel. And to make silk assessors’ lives a little easier when applicants come calling in May, Dame Anne fields some commonly asked questions