The Secret Barrister cover art

The Secret Barrister

Stories of the Law and How It's Broken

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Secret Barrister

By: The Secret Barrister
Narrated by: Jack Hawkins
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

An anonymous barrister's darkly comic and moving first-hand account of life in the legal system, and how it's failing us all.

The Sunday Times number one bestseller.

Winner of the Books are My Bag Non-Fiction Award.

Shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year.

Shortlisted for Specsavers Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

You may not wish to think about it, but one day you or someone you love will almost certainly appear in a criminal courtroom. You might be a juror, a victim, a witness or – perhaps through no fault of your own – a defendant. Whatever your role, you’d expect a fair trial.

I’m a barrister. I work in the criminal justice system, and every day I see how fairness is not guaranteed. Too often the system fails those it is meant to protect. The innocent are wronged and the guilty allowed to walk free.

In The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken I want to share some stories from my daily life to show you how the system is broken, who broke it and why we should start caring before it’s too late.

A Sunday Times top ten bestseller for twenty-four weeks.

©2018 The Secret Barrister (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio Law Professionals & Academics True Crime Crime Funny Thought-Provoking Scary Inspiring

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Fake Law cover art
In Your Defence cover art
A Bit of a Stretch cover art
How They Broke Britain cover art
Unnatural Causes cover art
Unlawful Killings cover art
Undoctored cover art
Tough Cases cover art
A Life of Crime: The Memoirs of a High Court Judge cover art
Court Number One cover art
Anatomy of a Jury cover art
Mistrial cover art
Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills cover art
23/7 cover art
Freeing David McCallum cover art
Misjustice cover art

Critic reviews

'Eye-opening, damning and hilarious' – Tim Shipman, author of All Out War and Fall Out

‘Eye-opening, funny and horrifying’ – Observer

‘Everyone who has any interest in public life should read it’ – Daily Mail
All stars
Most relevant
You never know when it could be you or your loved one who is a victim of crime or accused of a crime. The failings of our justice system in its current state will affect all.
Fantastic read.

Everyone should read this book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Whilst I did enjoy this book, I just felt it was an excuse to moan about the hard done by persons working within the realms of the law.

I think most people don’t have a huge amount of sympathy for their hard work. So it was good to hear the nuts and bolts of their profession.

The miscarriages of justice and the down right outrageous verdicts, prosecutions and defence cases are here and laid bare.

The secret barrister covered the history of the profession from previous century’s with various interesting cases.

Frightening telling the tales of those person who are in the wrong place at the wrong time and are innocents, but get mistakenly identified as the perpetrator then spend so much time, money, as well as mental and physical energy trying to clear themselves. Which is something that has always worried me , and there is no redress on this which is outrageous.

The narrator was ok, but jumped about from normal speech to plummy with long drawn out vowels, which was a little annoying.

I would recommend this book, but not as highly as other reviewers.

Behind the scenes

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As a criminologist this is admittedly my kinda thing, however this book sussinctly and clearly explains the everyday practical experiences at the coal face of criminal justice whilst coherently explaining why the canary is looking a little peaky.

Shocking, eye opening, inspirational + terrifying

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
an excellent reading of a subject that can be heart breaking/depressing/funny in the same chapter . it really does make me wish it had more funding. I felt the barrister was talking to me rather than down at me. A really great book that made me want to want to improve my written and spoken vocabulary

a perfect reading of a sad system

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is an extremely interesting and very well written book. The Secret Barrister has an accomplished and engaging way with words, which Jack Hawkins brings to life with his skilful and entertaining delivery. I feel that I gained a great insight into the legal system and learned much about the various players involved. As a lay person, I had no understanding of the constraints and barriers which defendants, victims, juries, solicitors and barristers face. It is quite frightening and not a little depressing that our 'great legal' system may be so broken. The legacy of this book is that since finishing listening, I have thought about several of the stories told and wondered how and where these people now are. It was also enjoyable learning about the history of English Law and how it has evolved overtime to be where it is today.

Fascinating but a bit depressing!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews