Tuesday 11th February

'Life as a Criminal Barrister' - Simon Michael

Despite the miserable weather everyone turned out for what proved to be one of our best evenings.

The speaker, Simon Michael, described his very eventful life as a criminal barrister and successful crime writer. Called to the Bar in 1978 he uses his personal experience as a practising barrister for 37 years in the Old Bailey and other criminal courts to write novels based on his knowledge of organised crime in London. He wrote his first book, The Brief, followed by nine others after he retired from the law in 2016. The era about which he writes, the 1960’s, was a period of violent crime when the Krays, the Richardsons and other gangs fought for control of London’s organised crime.

Simon explained that his thrillers are real events of the time interwoven with cases he worked on and the experiences of his family. As Jewish immigrants to London in 1492 after the expulsion of Jews from Spain, his ancestors settled in the East End of London where they remained for 500 years!

Coming from a poor background, a local grammar school pupil, he had to work hard to finance his legal career, working for Barnet Council before university and later during the holidays. He is probably the only barrister who has swept the streets of the city. On completing his degree, he chose the Middle Temple as his Inn of Court and took part in the traditional ‘ceremony of call to the bar’ where a person is officially admitted to practise law as a barrister. Formal attire of robes and wigs are required. This caused much amusement as Simon showed us his first wig which had needed extensive cleaning and repairs.

It was to take a decade of hard work to become successful mainly because anti-semitism was rife amongst the legal profession.

This was a highly entertaining talk giving a detailed account of, and at times very amusing insight into, the life of a criminal barrister, providing plenty of material for a writer of crime thrillers. We would all be delighted if Simon returned for yet more legal stories.

Competition for the evening was a crime novel. This was won by Jean Alcock, 2^nd Jackie Sutton, 3^rd Pat Hurdle.

Report by Judy Blamey