This week's sign of the impending Apocalypse

[captainsblog]

I began reading John Mortimer's latest Rumpole novel today.

Several pages in, both the title character and his wife (Hilda a/k/a She Who Must Be Obeyed And To Whom J.K. Rowling Owes About A Billion Quid In Royalties) begin speaking quite a bit about the prospect of Horace "taking silk."

This refers not to sexual preference nor to cigarette preference, but to a unique characteristic of the British legal system. Barristers, the UK lawyers who make the appearances before the higher courts, are further divided into "juniors" and, for the last half-century of Elizabethdom, "Queens Counsel" (Q.C. for short). It is not an internal chambers distinction such as that between partner and associate, nor a government certification of any particular skill or level of experience. It's an honorific conferred in Her Majesty's name by a bureaucracy, and entitles the honoree to slightly fancier robes (hence the "silk" in the shorthand for obtaining this honor), a priority in seating in court, and perhaps better briefs from easily-impressed solicitors.

It was perhaps the latter consideration, along with some maneuvering on the home front by SWMBO, that led Rumpole to make enquiries and actually apply for this high status, several chapters into the new book.

I believe the only appropriate reply to this decision, and I shall try to sound sufficiently British in uttering it, is:

Shite!

Horace is not a Q.C.  Q.C. status is precisely what his character has been fighting against in the legal system in the entire time I've been reading/watching him. I even wrote a letter to call out the New Yorker, sometime in the mid-90s, when one of their articles about the British legal system tried to define the term as "a senior English barrister, like Horace Rumpole." This was back before the magazine actually deigned to print letters to the editor, but I did get a nice reply (typewritten, on ivory magazine letterhead) from their staff person in charge of responding to such curmudgeons, one Owen Ketherry. (It took me years to figure out what THAT name meant; can you?)

The new book is short and large-typed, and I shall probably know by tomorrow if Horace has ::shudder:: worked his way to a front bench. I assure you, my ultimate reaction to the story will have much to do with whether he succeeds or fails in the venture.

Comments

[canadiandiamond.livejournal.com]

We've got that here as well, both my last and current boss are Q.C.s and there are special seats for them at the Supreme Court too which must be nice I imagine, hehe.

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

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She Who Must Be Obeyed