Book of the Week

The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken
Recommended by Andy Wang 

Written by an anonymous author with the pen name 'the Secret Barrister', this book dives into the complicated criminal justice system in England and Wales, giving a personal account of the writer's own experience and revealing the system to be vastly underfunded and riddled with problems. Within pages, the reader discovers the shocking truth of what criminal justice is actually like, and how all of us are inextricably linked to it.

From terrible miscarriages of justice to how any normal barrister could be given seven cases a day, with as little as fifteen minutes to prepare for a trial, the book shows how the complexities of the law are simplified, through striking past cases and explanations of how they happened. The Secret Barrister identifies such flaws in the law as how clearly guilt rapists walk free, how the government has chosen quantity over quality, and how we will all pay that price. The author manages to from a bridge from the law to reality, conveying how it relates to all of us, why it is is so important and giving their opinions on what can be done before it's too late.

In three hundred or so pages, the reality of the criminal justice system, its strengths and increasing faults are exposed, the government seeming to not care at all as the guilty are acquitted, the innocent convicted and lives ruined. Both amusing and emotional, the Secret Barrister has managed to write a brilliant book on the system we face. Why does our country choose twelve random people to decide the fate of another defendant, when the law is so complicated even professional barristers and solicitors struggle? It is similar to asking a banker to perform heart surgery. The answers all lie in the book.

The book came to my attention recently, sparking my interest in the criminal justice system. The author always explains concepts, sometimes in details or by simplifying them, sometimes by supplying a brief history lesson whilst adding some personal humour. They manage to make the reader undergo a variety of emotions - happiness, awe, empathy and perhaps anger. In conclusion, the Secret Barrister has written a thought-provoking book which personally I enjoyed to the fullest extent.