FAKE LAW THE TRUTH ABOUT JUSTICE IN AN AGE OF LIES

THE SECRET BARRISTER Picador, 400pp, £20, ebook £9.99

The Secret Barrister is an anonymous blogger and barrister whose first book – Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken – became a best-seller. Will they (preferred pronoun) manage the same again? The fake law of the title refers to the reams of disinformation which appear in the tabloid press and are worked into speeches by central government – basically stories in which the law is made to look an ass. Examples include the illegal immigrant who escaped deportation because of his cat (made up) and the homeowner who went to prison for attacking a burglar (more complicated than the headlines allowed).

Thomas Grant in the Times praised the arguments as ‘measured, reasoned and founded on the hard bedrock of fact’. He promised readers would come away from the book feeling that their minds had been ‘purged’ by a valuable contribution to the Enlightenment project of

‘As a journalist, reading an attack on the media rankles a little’

‘purveying truth and slaying mendacity’. Rosamund Urwin in the

Sunday Times admitted that as ‘a journalist, reading an attack on the media rankles a little’. But she described the book as ‘well written, both punchy and providing concise explanations of complex laws’.

Philip Johnston in the Telegraph also confessed to a resistance to ‘books that seek to defend a particular profession from the alleged scourges of my own industry’. He argued with SB for taking as ‘gospel’ the Supreme Court’s ruling in favour of Gina Miller when she challenged the government for proroguing Parliament last year. ‘Why was the Supreme Court’s ruling unanimous? Is there not something about its aggrandisement that is worthy of discussion, even in the terms employed by the tabloids which SB dismisses as “hysteria”, or are we just supposed to go along with it?’ But Brexit quibbles aside, critics – including Johnston – were united in enjoying if not agreeing with the Secret Barrister’s latest offering.