The Fortunes of Law

In this novel, the lives and loves of three solicitors in the 20th. century are portrayed against the background of two world wars, the rise of Fascism and Communism and the changing social scene, with the spread of divorce and Freudian analysis. Several of their cases are described -- commercial fraud, tax avoidance, enticement, 'Romish' practices in Anglican churches, the sale of wormy bars of chocolate -- and the characters in these, including financiers and Communist bureaucrats and some of the judges and counsel involved. The author is a retired solicitor. After many years in general and commercial practice in the West End and the City of London, he now has time to pursue a wide variety of interests, which include reading Virgil, Evelyn Waugh and Raymond Chandler, listening to pre-1960 jazz and watching film noir DVDs.