The Griffin Collection is a collection of lighter reading – legal histories, biographies, anecdotes – that members may enjoy in a rare moment of free time.
Below are some of our favourites. The full collection can be found in Bay XXXIV of the Library. They can be borrowed from the Library for up to two weeks.
GRAHAM BOAL
A drink at the Bar
“Witty and engaging. It offers a fascinating ringside seat at some of the most high-profile trials in modern English legal history, together with a brutally honest account of the writer’s descent into alcoholism and depression ― and his rise out of it.” – Catherine Baksi, The Times
RUTH BADER GINSBURG
Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s final book offers an intimate look at her extraordinary life and details her lifelong pursuit for gender equality and a “more perfect Union.”
FRANCIS COWPER
A prospect of Gray’s Inn
“A Prospect, says the Oxford Dictionary, is an extensive or commanding sight or view. This book presents such a view over the long and varied history of Gray’s Inn from the Middle Ages till to-day. For the lover of London and the social historian, no less than for the lawyers, the fascination of the Inns of Court is irresistible.”
MICHAEL MANSFIELD
The power In The People
In this short but powerful book, Michael Mansfield, KC draws upon his 50 years of fighting for justice and revisits his most important cases and clients, proving without doubt that when people get together they can make lasting and positive change.
IAN DUNT
How Westminster Works…and Why It Doesn’t
“An impeccably researched and highly informative account of the reality behind the news stories we read every day. It provides exactly what people in power have always tried to avoid: a description of the mechanisms of government which can be understood by anyone.”
DAVID HOOPER
Buying Silence
“David Hooper, veteran media lawyer, explores how the power of money enables the very wealthy … to crush their critics through SLAPP tactics … Hooper describes how those with something to hide tried to stop you knowing about it, how their lawyers were willing to help them and… what the government urgently needs to do to stop them”
PAUL HOWCROFT
Dickens and his Lawyers
“Dickens’ personal involvement and fictional creations within the legal world are drawn together and put into context by an author who has spent a career practicing as a lawyer in central London. He brings an in-depth knowledge and experience of a legal world that still reflects the one known to Dickens. This includes its lawyers, clerks, judges, courts, offices and ancient inns of court. This book is partly a biography and partly a study of the Victorian legal world based on the many descriptive extracts from the novels.”
HASHI MOHAMED
People Like Us
“Raised on benefits and having attended some of the lowest-performing schools in the country, barrister Hashi Mohamed knows something about social mobility. In People Like Us, he shares what he has learned: from the stark statistics that reveal the depth of the problem to the failures of imagination, education and confidence that compound it.”
HELENA KENNEDY
Misjustice: How British Law is Failing Women
“Helena Kennedy, one of our most eminent lawyers and defenders of human rights, examines the pressing new evidence that women are being discriminated against when it comes to the law.”
SAM FOWLES
Overruled: Confronting Our Vanishing Democracy in 8 Cases
“We shouldn’t have to take our rulers to court just to get them to follow the rules. At a crucial juncture for British governance, Fowles urges us not to take our freedoms for granted.”