There is some overlap between that book and this, although this book is structured as a memoir recounting the Secret Barrister’s journey to Bar School and getting a pupillage (the training needed to become a barrister, which is incredibly competitive) to starting their career as a junior barrister and moving up to their decision to start a blog to recount how the criminal justice system is failing. I picked this up because I’d really enjoyed the Secret Barrister’s first book THE SECRET BARRISTER: STORIES OF THE LAW AND HOW IT IS BROKEN, which set out how the English criminal legal system was breaking apart. It’s honest, funny, horrifying and is a great way of learning how the legal system works. Their third book is a searing memoir recounting their journey to the bar and later as a blogger and, more importantly, how working as a criminal lawyer changed their own views of criminal law and those who run up against it. The Secret Barrister is an anonymous junior barrister specialising in criminal law in England and Wales and best selling author. I earn commission on any purchases made through these links. You can order NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH: STORIES OF CRIME, GUILT AND THE LOSS OF INNOCENCE by The Secret Barrister from Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or UK. And it tracks the Secret Barrister’s transformation from hang-‘em-and-flog-‘em, austerity-supporting twenty-something to campaigning, bestselling, reforming author, whose progressive writing in defence of the law is celebrated around the globe. It reveals the darker side of working in criminal law and how the things our justice system gets wrong are not the things most people expect.

It takes in the sometimes absurd traditions of the Inns of Court, where every meal mandates a glass of port and a toast to the Queen, and the Hunger Games-type contest for pupillage, through to the endlessly frustrating experience of being a junior criminal barrister – as a creaking, ailing justice system begins to convince the that something has to change …įull of hilarious, shocking and surprising stories from the Secret Barrister’s working life, Nothing But The Truth asks questions about what we understand by justice, and what it takes to change our minds. Nothing But The Truth charts an outsider’s progress down the winding path towards practising at the Bar. In hilarious and tragic stories from the criminal courts, it lifts the lid on what it’s really like to pursue a career at the Bar, and reveals the uncomfortable and surprising truth about life in our opaque criminal justice system. This tell-all memoir is the third book from the Secret Barrister. How might prosecuting society’s most dangerous criminals change a person’s beliefs about justice? How does it feel to successfully defend a person who is freed and then kills? What compels someone to become a barrister?

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