I asked our staff to talk about books that had inspired them.

Neil Lamont , Senior Lecturer in Forensic Chemistry wrote: As a youngster I was an avid angler and this was the catalyst for my continued love of the environment. Visiting the library to research my hobby, I found many well-loved books, from the fifties and sixties, on how to become the complete angler. The authors, themselves conservationist showed great insight with regards to the complexity of the environment, with in-depth observations on the feeding habits of the fish and the life cycles of the insects on which they feed. Their study of the aquatic environment ultimately influenced my choice of Degree and even the subject of my PhD.

Keith Puttick, Associate Professor of Law wrote: 

Erin Pizzey Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974). Inspirational and transformative, Pizzey’s analysis was also matched by action – Chiswick Womens Aid and Refuge http://www.refuge.org.uk  It is reading for the DV section of the Social Welfare Law and Practice Level 6 option (and L7 module). Incredible then as now, it spawned a vast literature on domestic abuse, social housing, and liberation politics. Compare its messages with contemporary priorities. Look at the Womens Aid site https://www.womensaid.org.uk/ Consider, too, today’s challenges. Cuts to services, refuges, and helplines. Forward into the past!

Aidan Flynn, who works on Constitutional Law remembers reading Peter Hennessy’s ‘The Hidden Wiring: Unearthing the British Constitution’ (1995). “It has a name that captures the mystique of an uncodified Constitution.  In 2010, PM Gordon Brown initiated work that led to the Cabinet Manual, published in 2011.  Hennessy co-authored a report:  ‘The Cabinet Manual and the Working of the British Constitution: The Hidden Wiring Emerges.’  The report describes the manual as “the broadest description of the constitutional landscape to be found in any single official document yet published.  But it is not the expression of a fully codified UK constitution.”  Full codification may come before the 21^st century is out.”

for Matt Sadler, who works on Business and Commercial Law, it was when his mother gave him John Rawls’s book A Theory of Justice. 

 “When my mother was completing her BA in Crime, Deviance & Society as a mature student in 2001 at Staffordshire University, she handed me a book and said ‘you’d enjoy this!’.I eventually got around to reading it and was intrigued by the notion that justice ought to be blind and that a ‘veil of ignorance’. Rawls suggests that ‘we must nullify the effects of specific contingencies which put men at odds and tempt them to exploit social and natural circumstances to their own advantage’. In other words justice can only be metered out when the system adopts this filtering of facts so that, as Rawls suggest, the ‘veil of ignorance’ precludes discussions of a person’s place in society, his fortune including natural assets and abilities, his intelligence and strength etc.It was this socio-legal position that first caught my attention and began to foster an interest in fairness, justness and equality in the eyes of the law and that in order for jurisprudent application of legal theory in the real world to be robust and adopt the ‘justice is blind’ position there needs to be a protection against bias and unfair categorization of those who come under the legal system’s scrutiny.It was at this moment that the seeds were planted and I have spent the last 8 years since beginning my legal education entrenching this philosophy within my own research and teaching.

Laura Walton Williams from Forensic Science writes: I have two, the non-fictional book, ‘Maggots, Murder and Men’ was written by Zakaria Erzinçlioglu who was a forensic entomologist.  I read this book before I started studying Forensics, and it was fascinating to find out how biological evidence could be used to aid criminal investigations. Fiction wise, the Sherlock Holmes books by Arthur Conan Doyle captured my imagination and I still enjoy reading these to this day. The concept of deductive reasoning based on observations is very well depicted in these stories.

A great frustration in my previous career as a police officer was the prevalence of unsubstantiated assertions, cavalier approaches to the truth and an emphasis on style over substance. Thinking that these indicated very low intelligence or a deliberate intention to deceive I often sank into despair. Reading Princeton Professor Harry Frankfurt’s essay called “On Bullshit” completely changed my outlook. It was published as a book in 2005 and became a NY Times #1 best seller. He traces the etymology, concepts and the social functions of bullshit. Importantly he explains the difference between lying and bullshit. A hugely influential book, it gives great insight into the communications of politicians, public officials and corporate leaders. As a taster, see Prof Frankfurt’s article in Time magazine in which he analyses Donald Trump’s communications using his theory. – David Simmonds

 Louis Martin wrote: “I found that my experience of teaching in the Law Department led me to a very important book. I was captivated by Rupert Haigh’s Legal English (fourth edition). I think all law students should have a Haigh close to hand during their studies. Haigh explains the importance of learning the legal terms and specialised language of law. Legal English is a very distinct and discrete branch of English and can be very challenging for the modern law student.  Many students need to be familiar with complex legal terms and Haigh really helps with his hints and tips.”

“A life time ago when I was a law student I found a copy of Graveson’s and Crane’s A Century of Family Law in a second hand book shop. It was published in 1957 and covered the period 1857 to 1957. While it had little bearing on my then studies, it was a window into the past that began my fascination with the development of family law and how the law and social conventions influence each other. The most startling revelation was that less than ten percent of the contents covered the law relating to children in 1957, the majority of the contents covered the breakdown of relationships and financial obligation’s between family members. Today that statistic seems absurd as there is far more law relating to children than to adults and their relationships. Graveson and Crane was a seminal work in its time and now highlights how family law has changed, fundamentally for the better recognising the needs and rights of the most vulnerable members of society whose voices were barley heard in 1957”.- Sue Jenkinson

World Book Day – somewhat late! from Forensics team member Julian Partridge.

When siting back and reflecting upon the books that inspired me as a child I suddenly remembered how bare the bookshelves actually were in my parent’s home and how few books I actually possessed at the time, thankfully this is now rectified. However, I did have my father’s illustrated copy of “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson published in the 1950s.

A story of adventure, loyalty, daring, betrayal and murder- strangely all of which have had some part to play in my career as a forensic scientist and ex-volunteer serviceman, I just haven’t found the treasure yet!