Rather His Own Man

Product Description

In this deliciously gossipy and enthralling memoir Australia's inimitable Geoffrey Robertson pays homage to his family and an extraordinary, fifty-year career as a lawyer across the world.

Shaped by his forebears' history, his childhood as a Bondi baby turned Eastwood boy, and his great success at Sydney University, where he was a prominent figure in the student politics of the era, Geoffrey railed from a young age against the social constraints of the Menzies years; and it was the restrictive fifties and sixties that finally propelled him away from Australia to the UK, when in 1970 he took a ship to England, to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

At Oxford Geoffrey offered to work with John Mortimer QC on the infamous, surreal Oz trial, and it didn't take long for his legal career to take off in London. He writes riveting accounts of his most memorable trials, including his extraordinary and varied work for human rights and freedom of speech causes; working with Malcolm Turnbull on the Spycatcher trial, for Assange, with Amal Clooney, and many other both hilarious and grave cases. And he talks deeply honestly about his personal life, girlfriends, meeting and marrying Kathy Lette, fatherhood and the challenges of bringing up a son on the autistic spectrum, and his greatly loved parents.

This is a riveting read from one of Australia's most individual talents. By turns funny, fascinating, compelling and poignant - Geoffrey Robertson's life is as colourful as the Hypotheticals he used to host.In this deliciously gossipy and enthralling memoir Australia's inimitable Geoffrey Robertson pays homage to his family and an extraordinary, fifty-year career as a lawyer across the world.

Shaped by his forebears' history, his childhood as a Bondi baby turned Eastwood boy, and his great success at Sydney University, where he was a prominent figure in the student politics of the era, Geoffrey railed from a young age against the social constraints of the Menzies years; and it was the restrictive fifties and sixties that finally propelled him away from Australia to the UK, when in 1970 he took a ship to England, to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

At Oxford Geoffrey offered to work with John Mortimer QC on the infamous, surreal Oz trial, and it didn't take long for his legal career to take off in London. He writes riveting accounts of his most memorable trials, including his extraordinary and varied work for human rights and freedom of speech causes; working with Malcolm Turnbull on the Spycatcher trial, for Assange, with Amal Clooney, and many other both hilarious and grave cases. And he talks deeply honestly about his personal life, girlfriends, meeting and marrying Kathy Lette, fatherhood and the challenges of bringing up a son on the autistic spectrum, and his greatly loved parents.

This is a riveting read from one of Australia's most individual talents. By turns funny, fascinating, compelling and poignant - Geoffrey Robertson's life is as colourful as the Hypotheticals he used to host.
Geoffrey Robertson QC is a leading human rights lawyer and a UN war-crimes judge. He has been counsel in many notable Old Bailey trials, has defended hundreds of men facing death sentences in the Caribbean, and has won landmark rulings on civil liberty from the highest courts in Britain, Europe and the Commonwealth. He was involved in cases against General Pinochet and Hastings Banda, and in the training of judges who tried Saddam Hussein. His book Crimes Against Humanity has been an inspiration for the global justice movement, and he is the author of an acclaimed memoir, The Justice Game, and the textbook Media Law. He is married to Kathy Lette. Mr Robertson is Head of Doughty Street Chambers, a Master of the Middle Temple, a Recorder and visiting professor at Queen Mary College, University of London.

Geoffrey Robertson QC has had a distinguished career as a trial counsel and human rights advocate. He has handled hundreds of death sentence appeals; prosecuted Hastings Banda and defended Salman Rushdie; acted for terrorist suspects at the Old Bailey and for Human Rights Watch in the proceedings against General Pinochet. He was counsel to the Antiguan Royal Commission which exposed arms traffic to the Medellin drugs cartel and was involved in training the judges to try Saddam Hussein. He serves as an appeal judge for the UN war crimes court in Sierra Leone and has authored landmark decisions on the limits of amnesties, the illegality of recruiting child soldiers and other critical issues in the development of international criminal law.
Geoffrey Robertson is founder and head of Doughty Street Chambers and sits as a recorder (part-time judge) in London, where he is a Master of the Middle Temple and visiting professor in human rights law at Queen Mary