George Carman QC was,
and perhaps still is, Britain’s most famous lawyer within living memory.
Equally feared and respected, he made his name as an erudite and incisive
advocate largely in the field of libel. Coming to prominence with his superb
defence of disgraced former Liberal Party leader  Jeremy Thorpe on a charge of conspiracy to
murder, Carman subsequently defended many well-known faces from the worlds of
entertainment, sport, politics and business, including Ken Dodd, Richard
Branson and Elton John.



Away from court, Carman
was a complex and private yet not unsociable man. In 1986, he met barrister
Karen Phillipps and, although she turned down his immediate marriage proposal,
the two would have a close platonic relationship for the rest of Carman’s life.



Carman intended to write
his memoirs but became too ill to complete the book and died in 2001. Using his
papers, press cuttings and court transcripts – along with the testimonies of
some of those who saw him in action and her own extensive memories of her close
friend –Phillipps presents a portrait of this eminent advocate through the
cases that made him famous. All the drama of the courtroom world that Carman
belonged to is here, along with some of the best and most entertaining theatre
the English justice system has ever seen.