Reviews

Dominic Regan and Sean Jones recommend wines for the festive season.  

At Christmas, even those who don’t drink, do. Here are our recommended buys for the season ahead and there is something for everyone. We anticipate a repeat this year of the internecine warfare between the big supermarkets. Keep your eyes open for buy 6 and get a 25% discount, something that all the big chains did last year. Majestic Wine now only insists that you buy a minimum of 6 bottles and their staff are very well informed. 

The first of a series of lectures in Westminster Abbey to celebrate 400 years of the King James Bible was given by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge.  

Counsel’s editor, Sally McCleery reports 

John Maher recommends the wines from Valencia.   

They make a perfect accompaniment to every dish, he enthuses. 

Law and Peace
by Tim Kevan
Bloomsbury, May 2011
£11.99 pp320

In the 1920’s, the Law Journal published a series of character-sketches of lawyers under the pseudonym “O”. These vignettes were eventually published as Forensic Fables and the author unveiled as Theo Mathew, son of Lord Justice Mathew and himself a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn. The enduring popularity of Forensic Fables came from its recognisable and often affectionate caricatures. It is in this tradition that Tim Kevan gives us Law and Peace, the latest instalment in his BabyBarista series. 

A seasoned troupe of actors performed two radio plays, Rumpole on Trial and Rumpole and the Right to Privacy, for this year’s Kalisher Scholarship fundraising event, writes Melissa Coutinho.  

Sunday, 15 May 2011 was a beautiful balmy evening that saw Middle Temple host what has become an annual Kalisher Scholarship fundraising event. We were entertained by a seasoned troupe of actors, some of whom had generously given their time at previous events: Martin Shaw, Maggie Steed, Philip Franks, Patricia Hodge, Anthony Howell, Maxine Peake (fresh from Silk), Duncan Bell, Daniel Hill, Tim Frances, Nicholas Le Prevost and Mark Farrelly. 

John Cooper QC reviews the Tricycle Theatre’s Tactical Questioning: Scenes from the Baha Mousa Inquiry which prepares for the spotlight to fall on the Report to be published in September.  

Tactical Questioning: Scenes from the Baha Mousa Inquiry, edited by Richard Norton-Taylor, the Tricycle Theatre (2 June until 2 July). 

A look at the distillation process of whisky and how to enjoy the perfect dram at the end of a long day in chambers.  

After a long and arduous working day we all appreciate some “self” time in which to relax, unwind and contemplate. Having a dram of a good single malt whisky must surely be one of the finer accompaniments to these moments. However, if the ‘wee dram’ is consumed too quickly and is not savoured, the full benefit of what we have in the glass will be missed. 

The inaugural Bar Debate took place on 7 April 2011 in Court 1 of the Old Bailey. Counsel’s David Wurtzel was there
  

The debating chamber 

Court 1 of the Old Bailey has seen its share of sentencing in its time.  This has included the need for the judge to don the black cap, which at least one panellist on 7 April looked forward to seeing again.  It was thus a suitable if well behaved venue for the first Bar Debate:  “Bang ‘em up Britain:  are we taking a rational approach to sentencing?”  

David Wurtzel reviews the law at work on stage in Inner Temple and out of the back of a Lincoln sedan in LA, Hollywood style… 

MURDER MOST FOUL OR LIBEL MOST VILE,
Inner Temple, 28 and 29 March 2011
Sponsored by Charles Stanley

Responding to a request from their Treasurer, Lady Justice Hallett, for an historical play, Murder Most Foul or Libel Most Vile was performed in Inner Temple in March. This is a highly intelligent piece, packed with historic and political detail and which can best be enjoyed by those who know their early Elizabethan history well. 

This summer’s production of Judgment at Nuremberg will put history and budding legal thespians in the spotlight. John Cooper QC meets the director, Sally Knyvette, for the inside story.  

When I walked into the rehearsal room at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, London, I found Sally Knyvette already sitting at the table waiting for the first audition to begin. I was glad that I was early for the interview, because had I been late, I instinctively felt that she would not have been pleased. I was right. “When I am working with people, I expect professionalism and that includes being on time,” she explained.