Lifestyle

Summer Reading

The Bar Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Vice Chairman-Elect with their favourite books for the summer.

Summer is designed for cricket, and it is a truth universally acknowledged that the best book about cricket is Beyond a Boundary by CLR James. The book takes in race, class, colonialism and so much more, as befits the Leninist, Trinidadian nationalist author of the line: “What do they know of cricket, who only cricket know?”

Diving in

Zoe Saunders on how she makes the most of her time away from court and unwinds.

As I was leaving court recently, one of the local district judges said to me: “I understand you’ve taken up some kind of extreme sport, sky diving or something.” As someone who is terrified of heights and not much of an extreme sports fan I had no idea what he was talking about; after some discussion of other extreme sports that I would never contemplate, I tentatively offered “Do you mean freediving, Judge?” To which he replied, “oh yes, that’s the one".

Judging images

The 2005 and 2013 legal reporting reforms have given rise to initiatives and new images which feed into a new Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project: Judging Images: the making, management and consumption of judicial images. Leslie J Moran reflects upon this project and on Isobel Williams’s work.

Isobel Williams is not so much a courtroom artist, commissioned to produce court pictures for an image hungry media, but an artist interpreting her courtroom experiences in words and pictures. Her licence to draw in the Supreme Court is indicative of a new relationship between courts and visual media.

Picture-blogging in the Supreme Court

Blogging artist Isobel Williams on her work in the highest court in the land.

Since July 2012 I have been an occasional blogger-with-a-difference in the Supreme Court, with the court’s permission. The difference is that I illustrate my blog with drawings which I do on the spot; I rarely embellish them afterwards.

Please put a penny in the old man’s hat

Sean Jones QC and Professor Dominic Regan give Counsel a tour of the wine around this Christmas

There is an enormous range of bottles out there this year. Here are some that we think you will be glad to have bought.

Grand Masters

Nicolas Bragge outlines highlights of the colourful life of Master Richard Wakeford VC whose photograph is one of many past Masters on show at the Rolls Building.

The Chancery Masters, together with other judiciary, moved to the Rolls Building from the Thomas More Building two years ago; more recently, photographs of past and current Masters have been displayed there for public view. It is hoped that this has been welcomed as a source of interest by those who appear before us.

Flying solo

A day in the life of a single mother at the Bar. By Gulshanah Choudhuri

A typical day would see me crawling from my bed at around 7am, asking the girls to get up. Once the mele of breakfast is sorted, uniforms on, rucksacks packed, I head off to two different schools for my daughters. Rayhanah, aged 5, attends a private school not far from her sister, Ambreen, aged 8 and a half, whose school is a mile down the road. She is bright and sociable and attends a mainstream school, despite her having Down’s Syndrome. She’s very in tune to the day I’m at court or at work as I will have departed from my normal attire of tracksuit bottoms and make-up free face to other end of the spectrum: power suit, make up and jewellery, statement heels. Her reaction is always: “Work Mummy? Beautiful Mummy, like a princess,” followed by: “who pick you up?”

Eagles and air shots

In a profession where reputations are prized and seniority is an obsession, the Annual Tournament of the Bar Golfing Society is a great leveller. Simon Goldstone and Guy Williams explain.

The Bar Golfing Society has just played its Annual Tournament at Royal St. George’s, Sandwich. The tournament was won by HHJ Richard Bromilow (handicap of 5) 110 years after the first tournament was played down the ancient highway at Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club (Deal). This year’s Final was a particularly close affair, Bromilow beating Jonathan Furness QC on the 19th hole. The golf improved along with the weather as the week progressed. Taking place annually in Whit week, the tournament rotates between Sandwich, Deal, and Rye, with occasional forays to Hunstanton and Royal Birkdale. The standard of golf course is therefore uniformly high, each tournament contested on one of the best England can offer, and at substantially discounted rates. The standard of golf is considerably more mixed. Every entrant believes he or she has a genuine chance of winning; golfers of all standards are warmly welcomed; the tournament expects to see eagles and air shots equally.

Writing about what you know

H.H. Judge Peter Murphy talks to Counsel about his novel, A Higher Duty

Why write a novel about barristers? This is really two questions in one, isn’t it? First, why write a novel at all? Second, why write a novel about barristers?

Art and the law

The Rolls Building Art & Education Trust has been set up to use art works and historical items to promote awareness of the law and the business-related justice system among young people. Stephen Fash explains

The Rolls Building is the largest specialist centre for the resolution of financial, business and property litigation in the world. It is also home to the Rolls Building Art & Education Trust (RBAET) which has been set up to use art works and historical items to promote awareness of the law and the business-related justice system among young people.

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