*/
Best books, favourite films, top tracks and an essential: Counsel invites barristers to share their cultural influences. In this issue, we talk to Nigel Poole QC, Head of Chambers at Kings Chambers, who also blogs as Learned Friend
A Dance to the Music of Time, a 12 novel series by Anthony Powell has made the most lasting impression on me. The prose is beautiful but it is the characters that have stayed with me since I first read it about 30 years ago: Widmerpool, Stringham, Flitton and an array of other extraordinary people float in and out of the narrator’s life. A barrister’s career is similarly cast with colourful characters with whom you dance for a while and then do not see for perhaps 20 years. The diligent student at Bar school re-appears as a stern High Court judge, a pompous fellow pupil is later mired in scandal. I am planning the right time to read the whole sequence one more time.
My wife and I have recently discovered Simenon’s superbly written Maigret novels. She is pulling ahead of me, having read about 30 now, whilst I am at 25. Penguin is re-publishing the whole series – 75 in total I think – so we have plenty more to enjoy. I am afraid that Rowan Atkinson is woefully miscast in the recent TV adaptations: Maigret is built like a docker.
Goin’ Up Yonder by Walter Hawkins. My musical life took an unexpected turn about seven years ago when I came across, and joined, a community gospel choir, Manchester Inspirational Voices. I am a Unitarian – my regular chapel’s congregation would never been confused with that of a pentacostal church. However, I have found the experience of singing in a gospel choir to be incredibly uplifting and enjoyable. Choral singing of any kind connects with something deep inside. Songs like Goin’ Up Yonder (to be played at my funeral, please) have the capacity to lift you away from the day to day cares of the world. It has been a great antidote to the pressures of life at the Bar. In 2016 we won the BBC1 Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the Year competition and this Christmas I sang in front of an orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall – an experience I think I enjoyed more than the audience.
Malcolm Archer: Requiem. Several years ago, on one of my very many annual holidays to the Isles of Scilly, I attended a concert at the tiny church on the island of St Martin’s (population 90). It had been arranged by two visiting families who, together with a handful of others, formed a small choir. The father of one of the families had died some months earlier and the choir sang this Requiem. The standard of performance was amazing. Co-incidentally, several years later I recognised one of the tenors, a teenager at the time of the Requiem, when he sang the lead at the Clonter Opera in Cheshire. The performance of the Requiem was so unexpectedly beautiful that it took my breath away. Archer was formerly director of music at Wells and then St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Chic, Le Freak: All I am willing to say is that this is my ‘dad dancing’ number.
One weekend when at Bar school in London, a friend took me to what was then simply The Tate. I entered the room where Mark Rothko’s murals for the Four Seasons were hung. It was a visceral experience being surrounded by these hypnotic, disturbing paintings. I think I sat there for about an hour, utterly absorbed.
Being the first to contribute to this series gives me the chance to make an early claim for the film (of the play) Twelve Angry Men. Along with the Rumpole books and TV series, this film inspired me to become a barrister. There is no lawyer in the film, but the process by which Henry Fonda’s character methodically picks apart the seemingly strong evidence of the defendant’s guilt is brilliantly done – the kind of work of which any lawyer would be proud. The best portrayal of a trial lawyer in film is Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch in To Kill and Mockingbird. I ‘made’ my children watch it recently and it has lost none of its power. One film I hesitate to re-watch because it leaves me emotionally wrung out is Shadowlands, with superb performances by Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.
I always take a book of stamps because I like to send a postcard home to my children from wherever I am staying. They have received postcards from all sorts of glamorous locations, from Carlisle to Skegness. I suppose I should stop now that they are teenagers.
Nigel writes the Learned Friend blog, dedicated to reporting developments affecting clinical negligence litigation. The blog has had over 350,000 page views and is read not just by lawyers but also by medical professionals, academics and the general public. Posts have been re-published by the Royal College of Surgeons, the Criminal Bar Association and a number of legal magazines and journals. It has even been quoted in Parliament. A series of posts concerning Lord Saatchi’s Medical Innovation Bill led to the formation of a successful national campaign to defeat the Bill’s attempt to circumvent the common law of negligence.
A Dance to the Music of Time, a 12 novel series by Anthony Powell has made the most lasting impression on me. The prose is beautiful but it is the characters that have stayed with me since I first read it about 30 years ago: Widmerpool, Stringham, Flitton and an array of other extraordinary people float in and out of the narrator’s life. A barrister’s career is similarly cast with colourful characters with whom you dance for a while and then do not see for perhaps 20 years. The diligent student at Bar school re-appears as a stern High Court judge, a pompous fellow pupil is later mired in scandal. I am planning the right time to read the whole sequence one more time.
My wife and I have recently discovered Simenon’s superbly written Maigret novels. She is pulling ahead of me, having read about 30 now, whilst I am at 25. Penguin is re-publishing the whole series – 75 in total I think – so we have plenty more to enjoy. I am afraid that Rowan Atkinson is woefully miscast in the recent TV adaptations: Maigret is built like a docker.
Goin’ Up Yonder by Walter Hawkins. My musical life took an unexpected turn about seven years ago when I came across, and joined, a community gospel choir, Manchester Inspirational Voices. I am a Unitarian – my regular chapel’s congregation would never been confused with that of a pentacostal church. However, I have found the experience of singing in a gospel choir to be incredibly uplifting and enjoyable. Choral singing of any kind connects with something deep inside. Songs like Goin’ Up Yonder (to be played at my funeral, please) have the capacity to lift you away from the day to day cares of the world. It has been a great antidote to the pressures of life at the Bar. In 2016 we won the BBC1 Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the Year competition and this Christmas I sang in front of an orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall – an experience I think I enjoyed more than the audience.
Malcolm Archer: Requiem. Several years ago, on one of my very many annual holidays to the Isles of Scilly, I attended a concert at the tiny church on the island of St Martin’s (population 90). It had been arranged by two visiting families who, together with a handful of others, formed a small choir. The father of one of the families had died some months earlier and the choir sang this Requiem. The standard of performance was amazing. Co-incidentally, several years later I recognised one of the tenors, a teenager at the time of the Requiem, when he sang the lead at the Clonter Opera in Cheshire. The performance of the Requiem was so unexpectedly beautiful that it took my breath away. Archer was formerly director of music at Wells and then St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Chic, Le Freak: All I am willing to say is that this is my ‘dad dancing’ number.
One weekend when at Bar school in London, a friend took me to what was then simply The Tate. I entered the room where Mark Rothko’s murals for the Four Seasons were hung. It was a visceral experience being surrounded by these hypnotic, disturbing paintings. I think I sat there for about an hour, utterly absorbed.
Being the first to contribute to this series gives me the chance to make an early claim for the film (of the play) Twelve Angry Men. Along with the Rumpole books and TV series, this film inspired me to become a barrister. There is no lawyer in the film, but the process by which Henry Fonda’s character methodically picks apart the seemingly strong evidence of the defendant’s guilt is brilliantly done – the kind of work of which any lawyer would be proud. The best portrayal of a trial lawyer in film is Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch in To Kill and Mockingbird. I ‘made’ my children watch it recently and it has lost none of its power. One film I hesitate to re-watch because it leaves me emotionally wrung out is Shadowlands, with superb performances by Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.
I always take a book of stamps because I like to send a postcard home to my children from wherever I am staying. They have received postcards from all sorts of glamorous locations, from Carlisle to Skegness. I suppose I should stop now that they are teenagers.
Nigel writes the Learned Friend blog, dedicated to reporting developments affecting clinical negligence litigation. The blog has had over 350,000 page views and is read not just by lawyers but also by medical professionals, academics and the general public. Posts have been re-published by the Royal College of Surgeons, the Criminal Bar Association and a number of legal magazines and journals. It has even been quoted in Parliament. A series of posts concerning Lord Saatchi’s Medical Innovation Bill led to the formation of a successful national campaign to defeat the Bill’s attempt to circumvent the common law of negligence.
Best books, favourite films, top tracks and an essential: Counsel invites barristers to share their cultural influences. In this issue, we talk to Nigel Poole QC, Head of Chambers at Kings Chambers, who also blogs as Learned Friend
Sam Townend KC explains the Bar Council’s efforts towards ensuring a bright future for the profession
Giovanni D’Avola explores the issue of over-citation of unreported cases and the ‘added value’ elements of a law report
Louise Crush explores the key points and opportunities for tax efficiency
Westgate Wealth Management Ltd is a Partner Practice of FTSE 100 company St. James’s Place – one of the top UK Wealth Management firms. We offer a holistic service of distinct quality, integrity, and excellence with the aim to build a professional and valuable relationship with our clients, helping to provide them with security now, prosperity in the future and the highest standard of service in all of our dealings.
Is now the time to review your financial position, having reached a career milestone? asks Louise Crush
If you were to host a dinner party with 10 guests, and you asked them to explain what financial planning is and how it differs to financial advice, you’d receive 10 different answers. The variety of answers highlights the ongoing need to clarify and promote the value of financial planning.
On the 50th anniversary of the pub bombings, even now it is still unresolved. Chris Mullin, the journalist and former MP who led the campaign leading to the release of the Birmingham Six, looks back at events
Most of us like to think we would risk our career in order to meet our ethical obligations, so why have so many lawyers failed to hold the line? asks Flora Page
If your current practice environment is bringing you down, seek a new one. However daunting the change, it will be worth it, says Anon Barrister
One year on and the Court of Appeal fails to quash convictions after receiving evidence of racism in the jury room, and there are still no revisions to the Equal Treatment Bench Book , says Keir Monteith KC
A cultural life and times
