Uploaded September 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
BOOK REVIEW
IN BLACK AND WHITE
A Young Barrister’s Story of Race and Class in a Broken Justice System
By Alexandra Wilson
ISBN: 978 1 91306 878 3 (paperback)
978 1 91306 828 8 (hardback)
ENDEAVOUR/OCTOPUS PUBLISHING GROUP
octopusbooks.co.uk
THE RACIAL POLITICS OF JUSTICE AT THE BAR IN 2020s IS FIT FOR MENDING IF YOU READ THIS BOOK, BUT THERE IS STILL A LOT OF WORK TO DO
An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor MA of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers, Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”, and Mediator
It is a fervent hope that there will never be a need for a new edition of this work because it will not be needed, although this is probably a somewhat forlorn hope. “In Black and White” is about race and The Bar, barristers, judges and clients. It has been written by a junior barrister, Alexandra Wilson, who should be heartedly congratulated by the entire legal establishment for her honest and sobering personal voyage of discovery as a modern barrister-at-law in the common law jurisdiction… as a black female advocate in 2020s.
Her journey began as a teenager when a dear family friend called Ayo was stabbed on his way home from football. Ayo's death changed her forever, and she joined the Bar at a most interesting time for the profession. The time will come, whether clients like it or not, when more barristers will be women than men and some form of equality might become apparent in judicial appointments (possibly).
Wilson practises as a junior criminal and family law barrister in 2021. She does face much of what most of us have faced in the past, but most have not spoken or written about the prejudices, mainly because until very recently barristers were white males who were not too fussy as their background would almost certainly obtain legal preferment if wished. Times change.
What Wilson finds is what she described as “herself navigating a world and a set of rules designed by a privileged few. A world in which fellow barristers sigh with relief when a racist judge retires”. That prejudice and rudeness on the bench exist is a fact of life which most counsel have all suffered from at some stage. Less courtroom secrecy and full filmed proceedings which are publicly available to all without hinderance will come eventually but we are still a long way of just now.
Wilson re-creates the tense courtroom scenes in this book, with “heart-breaking meetings with teenage clients”, plus what we have all had- those “moments of frustration and triumph that make up a young barrister's life”. It has not changed much for juniors since I first read law in 1970, except the process of pupillage and post qualification experience have made matters much better for all (in my view) whilst pupillages sadly continue to shrink.
The author’s own views “of what she has witnessed as a young mixed-race barrister is in equal parts shocking, compelling, confounding and powerful” according to the synopsis, and we could all hope for some change which will not come yet. This book, we feel, is important reading for a wide range of readers. It will not change the prejudice of clients, or the dwindling number of racist judges who are probably now in single figures. We need more women like Alexandra at the Bar, and I think we will get them, especially if they read this book, qualify and mend a temporarily broken system which can be repaired.
The date of publication of this new paperback edition from Octopus is cited as 29th April 2021. A hardback edition is also available.
Do visit the publisher's website for their latest editions and new titles.
BOOK REVIEW
IN BLACK AND WHITE
A Young Barrister’s Story of Race and Class in a Broken Justice System
By Alexandra Wilson
ISBN: 978 1 91306 878 3 (paperback)
978 1 91306 828 8 (hardback)
ENDEAVOUR/OCTOPUS PUBLISHING GROUP
octopusbooks.co.uk
THE RACIAL POLITICS OF JUSTICE AT THE BAR IN 2020s IS FIT FOR MENDING IF YOU READ THIS BOOK, BUT THERE IS STILL A LOT OF WORK TO DO
An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor MA of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers, Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”, and Mediator
It is a fervent hope that there will never be a need for a new edition of this work because it will not be needed, although this is probably a somewhat forlorn hope. “In Black and White” is about race and The Bar, barristers, judges and clients. It has been written by a junior barrister, Alexandra Wilson, who should be heartedly congratulated by the entire legal establishment for her honest and sobering personal voyage of discovery as a modern barrister-at-law in the common law jurisdiction… as a black female advocate in 2020s.
Her journey began as a teenager when a dear family friend called Ayo was stabbed on his way home from football. Ayo's death changed her forever, and she joined the Bar at a most interesting time for the profession. The time will come, whether clients like it or not, when more barristers will be women than men and some form of equality might become apparent in judicial appointments (possibly).
Wilson practises as a junior criminal and family law barrister in 2021. She does face much of what most of us have faced in the past, but most have not spoken or written about the prejudices, mainly because until very recently barristers were white males who were not too fussy as their background would almost certainly obtain legal preferment if wished. Times change.
What Wilson finds is what she described as “herself navigating a world and a set of rules designed by a privileged few. A world in which fellow barristers sigh with relief when a racist judge retires”. That prejudice and rudeness on the bench exist is a fact of life which most counsel have all suffered from at some stage. Less courtroom secrecy and full filmed proceedings which are publicly available to all without hinderance will come eventually but we are still a long way of just now.
Wilson re-creates the tense courtroom scenes in this book, with “heart-breaking meetings with teenage clients”, plus what we have all had- those “moments of frustration and triumph that make up a young barrister's life”. It has not changed much for juniors since I first read law in 1970, except the process of pupillage and post qualification experience have made matters much better for all (in my view) whilst pupillages sadly continue to shrink.
The author’s own views “of what she has witnessed as a young mixed-race barrister is in equal parts shocking, compelling, confounding and powerful” according to the synopsis, and we could all hope for some change which will not come yet. This book, we feel, is important reading for a wide range of readers. It will not change the prejudice of clients, or the dwindling number of racist judges who are probably now in single figures. We need more women like Alexandra at the Bar, and I think we will get them, especially if they read this book, qualify and mend a temporarily broken system which can be repaired.
The date of publication of this new paperback edition from Octopus is cited as 29th April 2021. A hardback edition is also available.
Do visit the publisher's website for their latest editions and new titles.
