Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer

I finished reading Michael Mansfield's Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer yesterday. It is absolutely enthralling, though admittedly I've always been interested in the justice system and the way it works. I don't always agree with his politics but I love his enthusiasm for his cases and his ability to admit when he made a mistake and things didn't turn out how he expected.

He covers many of the famous cases of the last 30 or 40 years including the Jill Dando murder, the Marchioness disaster, the inquest into Princess Diana's death, the Bloody Sunday enquiry and various miscarriages of justice. There are well thought out arguments for retaining jury trials for as many offences as possible and for not relying totally on DNA evidence.

The book is written in an engaging conversational style and Michael Mansfield unravels complicated subjects so that they are comprehensible to all. This is an excellent book whether you are interested in the law or in our life and times.

Interesting reading

I'm about half way through Michael Mansfield's Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer and it is fascinating reading if you're at all interested in the way our justice system works. He has been involved in some of the most high profile legal cases of the last 20 or 30 years. Mainly he defends people which has meant receiving all sorts of threats - up to and including death threats - especially when he was defending IRA bombers. So far I've been reading about the Marchioness disaster on the Thames; an assortment of IRA bombers; the Bloody Sunday enquiry; the Stephen Lawrence case; the miners' strike in the 1980s and the court cases which resulted from it. He has an easy writing style and while I don't always agree with his politics I can see where he's coming from. Well worth reading in my opinion.

Very mixed reading

I gave up on Richard T Kelly's Crusaders and put it on the charity shop pile. I couldn't even bring myself to write a review of it.

I am currently reading: Ariel Leve's The Cassandra Chronicles - a collection of short pieces from one of the Sunday papers. Michael Mansfield's autobiography - Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer. Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots: Why we Tell Stories. As a little light relief I'm still reading John Mortimer's The Third Rumpole Omnibus. A pretty varied selection!