Without Fear or Favour — Henry Cecil

‘If everyone had a perfectly clear conscience, the blackmailer would have no chance'. So begins a trial in which the unfortunate judge is himself blackmailed. Unwittingly ‘picked up' by a ‘respectable-looking girl' the judge finds himself put into an impossible situation in which an unscrupulous blackmailer threatens his career and personal life in an attempt to steer the course of a trial to an acquittal. Can Mr Justice Slaughter save himself from ruin and degradation?

Tha Author: Judge Henry Cecil Leon was born in Norwood Green Rectory near London in 1902. In 1923 he was called to the Bar and from 1949 to 1967 he served as a County Court judge. He developed his writing skills whilst serving with the British Army during the Second World War, reputedly telling stories to officers at the behest of his colonel, so as to keep their minds off alcohol whilst sailing on ‘dry' ships. These stories formed the basis of his first collection, Full Circle, published in 1948. Thereafter, the legal year, his impressions at court, or at other official functions, as well as dinners at the Savoy Grill or at his club, the Garrick, all provided material for his considerable brain power.

He wrote during the three-week-long family holidays which were usually spent in comfortable hotels in Britain. He would sit in a deck chair in a sunny garden, exercise book on lap and pen in hand, writing from 10 am to 1pm, then again from 2.30 to 4 pm each day.

Cecil had an extraordinary ability to examine the law in both a humorous and a more serious, analytical way, providing a series of thought provoking works.

Many of his stories have been made into films or plays - notably 'Brothers-in-Law' and 'Alibi for a Judge'. These and other books have also provided a stimulus for those wishing to take up law as a career, although whilst dealing with the legal system they also have more than an element of the mystery/thriller genre about them. They are a delight for those who look for authenticity in the most aptly described British characters.

Cecil died in May 1976, still at the height of his mental powers.