Every unlawful death tells a story. Every trial involves characters to be understood, motives to be unravelled, plans and methodology to be exposed.” So writes Her Honour Wendy Joseph QC at the beginning of her riveting and revelatory début, Unlawful Killings: Life, Love and Murder: Trials at the Old Bailey (Doubleday) .

Unlawful Killings by Wendy Joseph | Book review | The TLS

I don’t agree with many of the automatic reduction of sentences guidelines despite the mitigating factors but at least I now know why some sentences are appalling inadequate. Often as an author, I only occasionally get to meet the public who buy and read my books. The Oxford Literary Festival was a special opportunity for me and certainly one of the highlights of my career – it was an honour I will never forget.Fascinating, propulsive and beautifully written, this is an extraordinary insight into the heart and mind of a judge as they witness the best and worst of humanity. I couldn't put it down. -- Sarah Langford, author of In Your Defence With compassion, wisdom, sardonic humour and a novelistic skill with pace and words, this is a breakthrough in expressing heinous crime from the position of one who had the fearful job of ruling upon it. Philip Mould, Philip Mould & Company Every literary festival stays in an author’s mind for slightly individual reasons. I shall remember the Oxford festival for: Roger Highfield and Peter Coveney Chaired by Irene Tracey Vice-chancellor’s Interview. Virtual You: How Building Your Digital Twin Will Revolutionise Medicine Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Fri 31 Friday, 31 March 2023 See this event

From Bard to Bar to Bench: HH Wendy Joseph KC

A stimulating and rewarding on-stage conversation; a lively informed and tolerant audience; privileged access to the great treasures of the Bodleian, and finally, wonderfully interesting dinner companions to help me conclude the best day I have enjoyed at any festival – anywhere. I met Her Honour Wendy Joseph at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Fiction Festival in Harrogate last year. I have never knowingly met a Judge before. I've always had that stereotypical view that a judge will be large, and loud and usually male. Her Honour is tiny and soft spoken and gentle and I was a little bit smitten by her! I learnt a great deal from this book, and from Her Honour. There were aspects of the law that surprised me, especially the explanation about the verdicts of guilty and not-guilty and how no one ever tried by a jury is found 'innocent', as there is no such verdict in England and Wales. A verdict of not-guilty only means that the prosecution has not made the jury sure of guilt. Even if a jury concludes the defendant is very probably guilty, they must return a verdict of 'not guilty' - because 'very probably' is not 'sure'. I have thought about this so many time since I read it. It's basic and straight forward, but I'm guessing that many people don't know this, or consider it. Wendy Joseph's career as a leading criminal barrister and High Court judge at The Old Bailey has given her unparalleled insight and understanding of crime and the working of the criminal mind. In this remarkable book she sets out in clear, dispassionate and forensic detail the twists and turns of six very different trials, not only revealing the intense human tragedy behind these stories but also the lives of the people who are integral to the court process, be it QC, barrister, clerk, witness or jury. The book is structured in a very accessible way, even to people with absolutely no experience of criminal law or legal procedure in any form. She has constructed a series of fictional cases, built from her experiences of hearing hundreds of real cases, to demonstrate different aspects of the crimes of murder and manslaughter, what the law is, how it is applied and how verdicts and sentences are reached. The author explains in straightforward, easily understood language the facts of each case, what evidence is brought forward in support of the case, the defence presented and how the judge instructs the jury and how sentence is passed. For anyone who is interested in more detail of the law being applied, there are detailed appendices which you can consult for further reading but, if that’s not your bag, you don’t need to go into that much depth to understand the points being made.

Joseph explains how cases unfold and what it’s like to be a murder trial judge and witness to the good and the very bad in human behaviour. She says every unlawful death tells a story. Most of us get to move on, but not the defendant, the family of the victim or the judge. The fracture lines that run through our society are becoming harder and harder to ignore. From a unique vantage point, the author warns that we do so at our peril. Some of the text is a little dry but personally I can’t see a way in which it could be made more digestible, the author has tried their best. Having recently sat as a Juror, I can state, first hand, that it is nothing like you see on the TV. Countless hours of waiting around to be called, a slow, almost pedestrian look through the evidence (in this case not murder but still very nasty), and with none of the high energy 'gotcha' reveals that you may have been used to seeing on old episodes of Perry Mason. The author very clearly dispels this myth in her narrative, but also takes us behind the scenes of the things we might not witness as jurors. All those moments of lawyerly wrangling that cannot be shared with the jury for fear of prejudicing the outcome. Using a very down to earth, often humorous, tone that always carries that edge and gravitas you might expect from a Judge, Her Honour Wendy Joseph delivers candid and very astute observations of the entire process, dissecting not only the salient parts of the case, but the legal teams, the witnesses, the defendants and even the jury, really making you feel like you are there in the public gallery watching proceedings.