Canbury scoops 'frank' legal memoir from murder trial lawyer

Canbury Press is publishing a legal memoir by a QC who has fought some of the biggest murder trials in Britain.

In Under the Wig: A Lawyer’s Stories, of Murder, Guilt and Innocence, leading murder case barrister William Clegg will recount his experiences of English criminal law over the past 40 years, drawing on his involvement as defence counsel in 14 high-profile cases - including the execution of Jill Dando and trial of Vincent Tabak for Joanna Yeates’s murder.

Clegg is head of chambers at 2 Bedford Row and has fought more than 100 murder cases - more than anyone else currently practising at the English Bar. Other cases featured in the book include Colin Stagg’s trial for the murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common, the trial of paratrooper Lee Clegg and Britain’s first prosecution for Nazi war crimes.

Rebekah Brooks’s phone hacking trial is also covered in the title after Clegg acted as counsel for the former News International head of security Mark Hanna. Pitched as "vivid and frank" with "the ability to personalise the dramatic and sometimes strange life of a leading murder case barrister", the work aims to give readers an insight into what it’s like to defend a client accused of murder at the Old Bailey.

Clegg, 67, spent three years writing the title, which will now be published as a £16.99 hardback on 4th October 2018.

Martin Hickman, managing director of non-fiction specialist Canbury Press, said: “Bill Clegg is one of the leading criminal lawyers of his generation. His turbo-charged narrative will intrigue and thrill anyone interested in the criminal law. The Secret Barrister and In Your Defence have opened up a substantial market for legal memoir and Bill’s book puts the reader right alongside him in this country’s biggest trials.”

Canbury holds world rights to the work, which was signed directly through Clegg.