*/
Chance, Cheek and Some Heroics
Author: Frederic Reynold QC
Publisher: Wildy, Simmonds & Hill (February 2018)
ISBN: 9780854902446
Frederic Reynold QC – ‘Freddy’ to his friends, of whom there are many – has written a memoir of his life as a barrister. Now past 80, but undimmed by the years, Reynold is something of a legend at the Bar, renowned for his warmth, wit and forensic prowess.
His career started in the early 1960s and the variety of his work over the ensuing decades is remarkable to the contemporary barrister. In the first 20 years of his practice he was combining commercial, landlord and tenant, compulsory purchase, and common law work in a whirligig of activity. Still, Reynold’s pre-eminence at the Bar was eventually to be founded on his work in the fields of trade union, employment and discrimination law.
In any memoir by a non-criminal barrister there is always the lurking danger of abstruseness. Accounts of criminal cases have universal appeal and a ready readership; not necessarily so stories from the Queen’s Bench Division. Nonetheless, here is a book which is genuinely fascinating in its account of life at the Bar as well as its recreation of the legal battlegrounds of the past. Reynold is endowed with a natural narrative ability, assisted by humour, crispness and elegance.
His life has not been that of the typical post-war barrister. He was born in Danzig and was fortunately brought to England in August 1939. Without the usual connections, through determination and hard work he read law at Magdalen College in the mid-fifties. One feels that his mother, who shepherded him on his way, was a force to be reckoned with. His account of childhood and development into adulthood is both affecting and historically perceptive. Life at Magdalen during its golden age is dwelt on at some length, and rightly so: Reynold’s account of his friendships there is a compendium of many of the great names of the last 50 years. In fact one feels that an even longer account would be merited – a sort of 1950s equivalent to Acton’s Memoirs of an Aesthete – and one hopes that Reynold could be persuaded to pick up his pen again.
Reynold’s search for a pupillage (much of it spent working on Rookes v Barnard) and establishment in practice details the vast gulf that separates the haphazard past from the rules-based present. His survey of life at the Bar is punctuated by insightful pen portraits of the judges and barristers he has encountered. Lord Denning is vividly delineated; as is a young Cherie Booth. The passages devoted to his experience as a junior to a drunk and distracted George Carman are both nerve-wracking and priceless.
It is a commonplace that legal memoirs have more of self-adulation than perceptiveness about them. Yet this book stands out from the crowd. Reynold’s charm and sensitivity of description provide a delightful account of a life vigorously lived.
Reviewer Thomas Grant QC is a barrister at Maitland Chambers.
Frederic Reynold QC – ‘Freddy’ to his friends, of whom there are many – has written a memoir of his life as a barrister. Now past 80, but undimmed by the years, Reynold is something of a legend at the Bar, renowned for his warmth, wit and forensic prowess.
His career started in the early 1960s and the variety of his work over the ensuing decades is remarkable to the contemporary barrister. In the first 20 years of his practice he was combining commercial, landlord and tenant, compulsory purchase, and common law work in a whirligig of activity. Still, Reynold’s pre-eminence at the Bar was eventually to be founded on his work in the fields of trade union, employment and discrimination law.
In any memoir by a non-criminal barrister there is always the lurking danger of abstruseness. Accounts of criminal cases have universal appeal and a ready readership; not necessarily so stories from the Queen’s Bench Division. Nonetheless, here is a book which is genuinely fascinating in its account of life at the Bar as well as its recreation of the legal battlegrounds of the past. Reynold is endowed with a natural narrative ability, assisted by humour, crispness and elegance.
His life has not been that of the typical post-war barrister. He was born in Danzig and was fortunately brought to England in August 1939. Without the usual connections, through determination and hard work he read law at Magdalen College in the mid-fifties. One feels that his mother, who shepherded him on his way, was a force to be reckoned with. His account of childhood and development into adulthood is both affecting and historically perceptive. Life at Magdalen during its golden age is dwelt on at some length, and rightly so: Reynold’s account of his friendships there is a compendium of many of the great names of the last 50 years. In fact one feels that an even longer account would be merited – a sort of 1950s equivalent to Acton’s Memoirs of an Aesthete – and one hopes that Reynold could be persuaded to pick up his pen again.
Reynold’s search for a pupillage (much of it spent working on Rookes v Barnard) and establishment in practice details the vast gulf that separates the haphazard past from the rules-based present. His survey of life at the Bar is punctuated by insightful pen portraits of the judges and barristers he has encountered. Lord Denning is vividly delineated; as is a young Cherie Booth. The passages devoted to his experience as a junior to a drunk and distracted George Carman are both nerve-wracking and priceless.
It is a commonplace that legal memoirs have more of self-adulation than perceptiveness about them. Yet this book stands out from the crowd. Reynold’s charm and sensitivity of description provide a delightful account of a life vigorously lived.
Reviewer Thomas Grant QC is a barrister at Maitland Chambers.
Chance, Cheek and Some Heroics
Author: Frederic Reynold QC
Publisher: Wildy, Simmonds & Hill (February 2018)
ISBN: 9780854902446
Chair of the Bar sets out a busy calendar for the rest of the year
Why Virtual Assistants Can Meet the Legal Profession’s Exacting Standards
By Louise Crush of Westgate Wealth Management
Examined by Marie Law, Director of Toxicology at AlphaBiolabs
Time is precious for barristers. Every moment spent chasing paperwork, organising diaries, or managing admin is time taken away from what matters most: preparation, advocacy and your clients. That’s where Eden Assistants step in
AlphaBiolabs has announced its latest Giving Back donation to RAY Ceredigion, a grassroots West Wales charity that provides play, learning and community opportunities for families across Ceredigion County
Despite increased awareness, why are AI hallucinations continuing to infiltrate court cases at an alarming rate? Matthew Lee investigates
The proscribing of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act is an assault on the English language and on civil liberties, argues Paul Harris SC, founder of the Bar Human Rights Committee
Come in with your eyes open, but don’t let fear cloud the prospect. A view from practice by John Dove
Anon Academic explains why he’s leaving the world of English literature for the Bar – after all, the two are not as far apart as they may first seem...
Review by Stephen Cragg KC