Secret Barrister
An anonymous barrister offers a shocking, darkly comic and very moving journey through the legal system – and explains how it's failing all of us.
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 are 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.
Writing as S. J. Fleet, The Secret Barrister's first novel, The Cut Throat Trial, is available for pre-order now.
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‘Eye-opening, funny and horrifying’ – The Observer
‘Everyone who has any interest in public life should read it’ – Daily Mail
The Secret Barrister is a junior barrister specializing in criminal law, and the author of the award-winning blog. The Secret Barrister writes for The Times, the Guardian, New Statesman, iNews, Esquire, Counsel magazine and Solicitors Journal, and has appeared in the Sun, the Mirror, and Huffington Post.
In 2016 and 2017, the Secret Barrister was named Independent Blogger of the Year at the Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards. In 2018, the Secret Barrister was named Legal Personality of The Year at the Law Society Awards. Their first book, The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken, was a Sunday Times top-ten hardback bestseller for twenty-four consecutive weeks.