Bon Vivant

Counsel speaks to Jolyon Maugham QC, the tax law blogger Waiting for Godot  

Where did the inspiration come from to write the blog? 

Passing laws is not a substitute for taking action  

'There is far too much law for those who can afford it and far too little for those who cannot’ – Derek Bok 

Introducing the Counsel Editorial Board, which shares some alternative reads  

Counsel wine columnists Professor Dominic Regan and Sean Jones QC celebrate some good seasonal buys – lighter on both palate and pocket  

There are some great bottles to be had right now. The summer propels one in the direction of lighter, less alcoholic wine. 

As the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London is marked by a new opera, His Honour Judge Cryan relates the pivotal role played by the Inn’s first Royal Bencher in saving the Temple Church and Hall from devastation  

In the early hours of Sunday 2 September 1666, a fire broke out in Pudding Lane in the east of the City of London, near London Bridge.  

To stay or to go has its courtroom equivalent  

‘It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.’ – Thomas Sowell 

Editors: Pamela Radcliffe, Gisli Gudjonsson CBE, Anthony Heaton-Armstrong and David Wolchover
Publisher: Oxford University Press (2016)
RRP: £59.95
ISBN: 9780199672936 

Words sometimes really will hurt you  

‘Thou art a boil, a plague sore, an embossed carbuncle in my corrupted blood’ – King Lear, William Shakespeare 

Counsel interviews criminal barrister Matthew Scott, aka the award-winning Barristerblogger  

Surprise victories are perhaps not so surprising  

‘People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.’– Blaise Pascal, Pensées