Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories by Thomas Grant, reviewed by Nicholas Hoare

Jeremy Hutchinson, Q.C. was the single most powerful criminal barrister in Britain in the '60s, '70s and '80s. A formidable foe, he defended the likes of Christine Keeler, George Blake, and the Great Train Robber, Charlie Wilson. But of the many obscenity cases he defended, all played second fiddle to his landmark performance in R vs. Penguin Books Ltd., whose Chairman, Sir Allen Lane, had been sued for obscenity by the Crown, both privately and corporately, for deliberately publishing D.H. Lawrence's infamous "Lady Chatterley's Lover" in unexpurgated form. By doing so, and gambling that the free publicity thus engendered would galvanise its sales (which it did: it sold two million copies in the UK alone with a year of publication), Penguin chose to tweak the lion's tail. And the lion, predictably, snapped.

Thomas Grant is himself an accomplished barrister. In this definitive account of a case that championed literary freedom and broke all manner of legal and sexual precedents, we have merely one chapter in a riveting book that appeals far beyond purely legal circles. 

It should be noted, however, that your correspondent is somewhat biased, at least with regard to the chapter concerned. Sir Allen was my sister's godfather, and his wonderful house, Silverbeck, just beyond Heathrow, was a treasured haunt of ours in our callow youth.

A most enjoyable read.

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