Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC – The Catcher in the Rye

Until March 2022, Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC served as a judge at the The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, the Old Bailey. When she joined in 2012, she was the only woman amongst sixteen judges, and only the third woman to hold a permanent position there. Joseph mentors aspiring young lawyers from diverse backgrounds, with a focus on supporting women. Her debut book, Unlawful Killings, won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction and became a Sunday Times bestseller.

“It’s lovely to be able to share with you a book that means a lot to me.

I first read The Catcher in the Rye when I was a teenager, and it was so different from the stuff we were reading at school. The story is told out of the mouth and mind of Holden Caulfield – a strange name for a strange boy. It took me right inside the head of someone I might not have liked much if I’d met him. But when I saw him from his point of view, I suddenly found a whole new way of looking at things. It made me understand how books let you experience  different lives. And after a while I recognised things in this boy which were a lot like me. Maybe you will recognise things like you, too.

I do hope you get as much out of this book as I did.”

Thank you to Wendy for recommending this book!

In her new book, Rough Justice, Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC reconstructs four gripping courtroom dramas from the Old Bailey, which encourage us to ask whether our justice system works, and if it has improved over the centuries. Have we got any better at delivering what is right and fair to both the perpetrators and the victims of society’s most heinous crimes?

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Photo Credit: Liz Isles