Confessions of a Briefless Barrister
by Harry Mitchell QC
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Pub Date 28 Oct 2018 | Archive Date 3 Dec 2018
Troubador Publishing Limited | Matador
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Description
This is an autobiography with a difference. Harry has had a very varied career, first spending five years in the Colonial Service in Sierra Leone then in a variety of posts in different industries, including a spell as company secretary to a British-owned company in India.
Confessions of a Briefless Barrister is a set of chapters on different interesting aspects of his life such as National Service, Cambridge and the law, as well as other chapters that look at particular subjects such as music and sport in the way that they were significant at different periods of his life.
Harry’s memoirs include accounts of his contacts with judges, prominent lawyers, chairmen and senior executives of companies, along with other national figures, and of his involvement with such major events as the nationalisation of the aircraft industry in the 1970s. The rationale of the book’s title is that although Harry was called to the Bar in 1968 and achieved the distinction of being appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1987, he always worked as a lawyer in positions of increasing seniority in different industries.
A ‘briefless barrister’ is normally one who is suffering hardship because he is not being briefed to represent clients in court and is not earning – whereas Harry was briefless in the sense that he was never working as a barrister in private practice and therefore never in a position to accept briefs. He therefore happily avoided the penury that would be the concomitant of brieflessness in the normal sense.
The range of Harry’s experiences goes from a brief spell as a swimming pool attendant in his student days to 16 years as Company Secretary at a major pharmaceutical multinational followed by ten years as a part-time immigration judge after retirement. He still has some involvement with the law as Honorary Legal Adviser to Migration Watch and is still active in local amateur music making.
Confessions of a Briefless Barrister is a fascinating insight into Harry Mitchell’s unusually varied life and outstanding career and will appeal to fans of autobiographies.
Advance Praise
"Harry has written a very engaging book about his very varied life, ranging from Africa and India to car plants and aerospace companies. Particularly interesting are his descriptions of the well known people he met and had dealings with along the way. It is written in a very non-technical way,mall owing the casual reader to understand the happenings even if they have no knowledge of the industries and environments themselves. I enjoyed it very much." - Amazon review
"Harry's vivid memory of his experiences takes the reader on an entertaining journey into a variety of different commercial and political environments. He lived through interesting times which are brought to life in his lucid descriptions of them." - Amazon review
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781789012774 |
| PRICE | £6.50 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 200 |
Featured Reviews
Willy M, Reviewer
This is an important book. Because Harry Mitchell is important? Because he has a brilliant and expansive view of what he witnessed, experienced or did in his life? No, we would be barking up the wrong tree if we were looking for such an incisive mind.
What we find is that Harry Mitchell loves the British Empire, loved his job as a legal functionary for British interests in Sierra Leone and India. He did the legal administrative functions for politicians and owners of industry. Loved it, down to the day he retired, and beyond. He even loved doing this in his retirement. Its hard not to enjoy sitting down with Harry Mitchell as he talks about his life, simple and plain and rather lacking in questions that bring any form of self realization or contextual understanding.
Harry Mitchell lacks history. He does not know why things are the way things are, nor does he possess any understanding of the higher ideals about what was trying to be accomplished or why. Its all so much work, that he does his level best to do. Good on Harry Mitchell. Here is the beauty of the book. You see the world through the eyes of someone who neither questions too deeply nor is particularly interested in questioning too deeply.
In the period of time of his professional life British mercenaries ran rampant over Africa, inequality divided the United Kingdom into a fragmented mess of fear and anger and nations and peoples across the planet tried to recover from European Empires (that means Britain too) that stripped them bare, broke their economies and ransacked their resources. As the planet goes to an environmental disaster you would hope people so far up in the hierarchy would have had some clue, but no. Harry Mitchell didn't. So many world problems are just lost on him. To Harry Mitchell everything is just fine, and can't see what all the fuss is about. Reasonable people, that elusive legal fiction "the reasonable man" is the hero of Harry Mitchell's imagination.
This to me is a significant book. If you really want to get to the bottom of what went wrong on a planet where the possibility of success was so obvious and yet we have rode headlong into a disaster, you must start by reading the morally interesting memoires of Harry Mitchell. God bless him and I hope the books sells well.
Cen R, Reviewer
Certainly an eye opening book- giving us the reader an idea on what goes on behind closed doors of Harry Mitchell QC profession. Also gives an insight into the background of his life.
An ok read- nothing special
Thank you to both NetGalley and Troubador Publishing ltd for my eARC in exchange for my honest unbiased review
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