Law and Disorder: Confessions of a Pupil Barrister, By Tim Kevan

"Litigation is like war." So BabyBarista is told on being presented with a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War during his first day in chambers. BabyB is about to find out that the battle lines are drawn not only in the courtroom but between the barristers who will be his neighbours for the next year of continual assessment. It is a lesson he is quick to learn – if fraud, philandering and a string of transgressions are to dictate which of the aspiring pupils make tenancy, BabyB plans to give as good as he gets.

Law and Disorder started life as an anonymous blog and its appeal as a novel is obvious. Tim Kevan, a former barrister himself, has a sharp eye for detail. While his cast tends toward caricature, one suspects that there is more than a kernel of truth to the pompous, sexist HeadofChambers, BabyB's conceited peer TopFirst and SlipperySlope, a solicitor "skilled in the creative art of billing".