Reviews:
“In this highly original book, Justice Barrett has drawn together an astonishing amount of material. This is an important contribution to the field of law and literature.”
Bryan A. Garner, Chief Editor, Black’s Law Dictionary
“This book will help guide anyone involved in legal writing to hone their writing skills, while providing an engaging tour through the works of great authors from the past.”
Law Society Gazette, Ireland
This book provides key lessons on legal writing that can be gleaned from various leading authors of the past and brought to bear in crafting more polished legal texts.
Among the great authors considered are Joseph Conrad, Guy de Maupassant, E.M. Forster, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, D.H. Lawrence, Robert Louis Stevenson and Virginia Woolf. Central themes identified are:
- Legal writing should never be too difficult to understand;
- Great writers have much to teach the legal writer;
- Good writing requires hard work;
- Professional jargon is generally best avoided; and
- The truth is always pure, often simple, and generally best expressed in plain English.
This book contains invaluable guidance to help all those involved in legal writing to hone their writing skills, while providing an engaging tour through the works of great authors from the past.
