The Secret Barrister

Stories of the Law and How It's Broken

By: The Secret Barrister

Narrated by: Jack Hawkins

Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

An anonymous barrister's darkly comic and moving first-hand account of life in the legal system, and how it's failing us all.

The Sunday Times number one bestseller.

Winner of the Books are My Bag Non-Fiction Award.

Shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year.

Shortlisted for Specsavers Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

You may not wish to think about it, but one day you or someone you love will almost certainly appear in a criminal courtroom. You might be a juror, a victim, a witness or – perhaps through no fault of your own – a defendant. Whatever your role, you’d expect a fair trial.

I’m a barrister. I work in the criminal justice system, and every day I see how fairness is not guaranteed. Too often the system fails those it is meant to protect. The innocent are wronged and the guilty allowed to walk free.

In The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken I want to share some stories from my daily life to show you how the system is broken, who broke it and why we should start caring before it’s too late.

A Sunday Times top ten bestseller for twenty-four weeks.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 The Secret Barrister (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio

Critic reviews

'Eye-opening, damning and hilarious' – Tim Shipman, author of All Out War and Fall Out

‘Eye-opening, funny and horrifying’ – Observer

‘Everyone who has any interest in public life should read it’ – Daily Mail

Shocking but vital

10% inspiring, 40% depressing, 40% fascinating and 10% funny.
I was gifted reading this audiobook by a friend who works, sorry, worked for the CPS. She recently apologetically left her mountainous backlog in the hands of her dwindling colleagues. She gave me no hint as to the tenor of this book but attested to the emotions and truths conveyed within these pages, so well read by the narrator.
The author can reasonably be lauded as a heralding angel of a coming man-made disaster, this time not of the environment but instead, the systems that our ancestors incrementally crafted to protect us. These systems have, through self interest and neglect, been allowed to erode from the inside out. By the time we wider public notice the human cost, the cost to remedy may sadly be too high and a new dark ages of society may be our harvest.
I'd argue this is almost required reading by any inhabitant of the British isles if only to prepare them for that hopefully unlikely day when they find themselves lost in the fickle maelstrom of the legal system.

very interesting, worth a listen

a very interesting book. not at all what I expected.

slightly scary too!!

a bit dry in places but some very fascinating insight.

the narrator is a bit preachy.

worth a listen

Review

The book was very informative, well documented and supported with proper examples. The book was read brilliantly. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Narrator is a bit too earnest, but important msg

I found the narrator to be annoying. Like a preachy mate who is right and rubs it in. This doesn't detract from the excellence of the work tho - the UK legal system is a car crash.