Friends at Court

Roger Thursby #2

by Henry Cecil

Roger Thursby is prospering in the legal profession and is about to be made a Queen's Council. In this brilliantly funny sequel to Brothers in Law we follow him through a further series of hilarious legal highs and lows.

234 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Henry Cecil Leon (19 September 1902 – 23 May 1976), who wrote under the pen-names Henry Cecil and Clifford Maxwell, was a judge and a writer of fiction about the British legal system. He was born near London in 1902 and was called to the Bar in 1923. Later in 1949 he was appointed a County Court Judge, a position he held until 1967. He used these experiences as inspiration for his work. His books are works of great comic genius with unpredictable twists of plot, but are not intended to be realistic or strong on characterization. They typically feature educated and genteel fraudsters and blackmailers who lay ludicrously ingenious plots exploiting loopholes in the legal system. There are several recurring characters, such as the drunken solicitor Mr Tewkesbury and the convoluted and exasperating witness Colonel Brain. He writes well about the judicial process, usually through the eyes of a young barrister but sometimes from the viewpoint of the judge; Daughters in Law contains a memorable snub from a County Court judge to a barrister who is trying to patronise him.

His 1955 novel Brothers in Law was made into a film in 1957 and, later, a television and radio series starring Richard Briers. While at Paramount Pictures, Alfred Hitchcock worked on adapting No Bail for the Judge for the screen several times between 1954 and 1960, and hoped to co-star Audrey Hepburn, Laurence Harvey, and John Williams, but the film was never produced.

Reviews

[Ritika · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was quite a disappointment after the previous book, which I remember being delightful. This came cross as more of a fun way of teaching law.

[Nadine Keels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because I only recently discovered this author and read his first novel about Roger Thursby, I thought I'd save this second one for some weeks or months. To space the reading out.

Well. That didn't happen. I really liked the first book, then watched the movie based on it, and I was still in the mood for more.

It's interesting to see how Roger, now thirty-three, thinks of the twenty-one-year-old man he was in the previous novel. I must say I quite agree with his sentiments on that score.

And I imagine his more seasoned self is likely one factor that affects the tone of this book.

I felt through much of the reading like this isn't quite as much of a comedy as the first novel. Roger no longer has newbie blunders to make, and while he's being the experienced and sharp barrister that he is now, there's nothing too funny about it. This time, while watching him work, I could get even more engrossed in his process of working through the complications and legal and moral questions arising from the central case in his hands.

Granted, as soon as I came to that sentiment while reading, the next scene in the story had me laughing out loud. But still, it seems even more of the laughable (and mostly inconsequential?) moments in this book come from other characters who apparently jump in just to add some comedy at a level that older, wiser Roger can no longer provide at this point in his career. And in his personal life.

Now, I could have done without most of the story's significant portion devoted to horse racing, which felt very much to me like pages of filler. A stretch of comedic but unneeded conversation toward the end felt the same way to me, as if the characters involved were only going down a circular rabbit trail to delay the ending.

But the ending the story does get to is pretty perfect.

The only reason this book didn't tip over into 4.5 stars for me was the same reason as the first book: one casual use of a distasteful expression referring to Black people. (No use of the N-word, though.)

At any rate, I would gladly go on to the third novel about Roger. But the ebook edition of it is no longer available—at least not in the U.S., that I can see. So, I'll have to be satisfied with the pretty perfect ending of Roger's story here and go check out some of this author's other novels about other folks sometime.

Note:
• language kept to a "PG" level
• one dated racial expression
• no graphic violence
• no explicit sexual content

[Ivor Armistead · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining comedic look at British barristers in action. You may not need to be a lawyer to get the most out of this book, but it probably helps.

[Douglas Baskett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my new Henry Cecil favorites. His dialogue is often clever, as are his characters, and you can never be sure of where the plot will go next. Unfortunately, my understanding of the British legal system isn't up to following the relationships between barristers, Queen's Counsel, and so forth, but I didn't find it to be too much of an impediment if I glozed over those paragraphs dedicated to it. Even with that hiccouph, if was a delightful read. I even almost read is a second time before handing it to my wife.

[Aditi Ray]

Gave up midway. For the first time in my life. It just wasn't my type. Not saying it is a bad read though.