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Benchmark: Life, Laughter and the Law
by Oliver Popplewell (Foreword: Stephen Fry)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: I B Tauris & Co Ltd (2003-04-25)
ISBN: 186064886X
EAN: 9781860648861
Dewy Decimal #: 340
Hardcover: 313 pages
SKU: B221-1159u
Condition: Like New
Comments: UNREAD but may have minor imperfections such as a crease or mark. In stock - quick dispatch, from an efficient and professional leading British bookselling firm.
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Customer Reviews
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apologist who should have kept quiet
Rating  (1)
Date: 2003-12-19
11 out of 15 customers found this reveiw helpful
dennis thatcher once said that he kept his mouth shut to avoid making an idiot of myself. sound advice. the great pity is that sir oliver popplewell wants us all to know what an idiot looks like in print. this overpromoted judge was badly wrong in his assessment of jonathan aitken during that libel case against the guardian. it would appear from reading this book that he's wrong about many other things too. why can't britain's second rate judges keep quiet. please in future stop writing books that undermine our faith in this country's system of justice.
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poor old chap
Rating  (2)
Date: 2003-12-01
13 out of 16 customers found this reveiw helpful
Popplewell's writing is a little bit like the rest of is life: safe, dull and predictable in an ivory tower sort of way. This book does much to reinforce the public prejudices about High Court judges - old fashioned, priviliged, public school and definitely out of touch. Regrettably, Popplewell confirms every stereotype. There is no harm or malice in the man, but not much common sense or understanding of ordinary people either. It's a great shame that he felt compelled to put his thoughts into print. Some passages make you cringe for all the wrong treasons. Maybe a discreet silence on his life and his cases would have been preferable. I was tempted to give this book only a one star rating, but awarded two stars out of sympathy.....perhaps because of Stephen Fry's introduction.
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Popplewell is real after all
Rating  (5)
Date: 2003-05-15
7 out of 11 customers found this reveiw helpful
After a litany of biographies purporting to show the real person inside, but which often fail to deliver, how refreshing to discover an true example of the genre.The focus is on laughter and the law, not incidental family background, which would have been of no insightful interest to a wider readership. Witty anecdotes abound and will bring a smile to those beyond the narrow cricketing and legal worlds in which he has operated. Despite the ostensible appeal to a minority readership, and an occasional poor writing style (which suggests this was not ghost written, and all the more authentic as a result) this is a surprisingly skilful blend of private and public moments, delivered with warmth, and a certain schoolboyish disrespect for political correctness which add colour to the previously known headline soundbytes surrounding Linford Christies' lunchbox, the Aitken libel trial, and the Bradford football stadium fire. My only disappointment is never having met the man, which this tome encourages.Fortunately, the book leaves the impression that there could be more to come.
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